[niversity  of  California 


Southern  Regional 


Library  Facility 


. 


K.  K.  K.  SKETCHES, 


mmonm$  and  fliiladui, 


TREATING    THE    MORE    IMPORTANT    EVENTS    OF 

THE  KU-KLUX-KLAN   MOVEMENT 

IN  THE   SOUTH. 

WITH 

A  Discussion  of  the  Causes  which  gave  Rise 

to   it,  and  the  Social  and  Political 

Issues  Emanating  from  it. 


BY 
JAMES   MELVILLE  BEARD. 


PHILADELPHIA : 
CLAXTON,  REMSEN  &  HAFFELFINGER, 

624,  626  &  628  MARKET  STREET. 
1877. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1876,  by 

CLAXTON,  REMSEN  &  HAFFELFINGER, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress  at  Washington. 


J.   FAQAN   It    SON, 
8TBRBOTTPER8,   PHILAD'A. 
"i^\J^ 


Selheimer  &  Moore,  Printers, 
501  Chestnut  Street. 


INSCRIBED 

TO 


jjjessrs.  |)eo.  |L  fjeeler  and  *)•  ¥]•  ami  J.  m.  fjarh, 

BOTH   AS  A   MARK    OF  THE    AUTHOR'S    ESTEEM   AND   A   TESTI- 
MONIAL  OF  GENEROUS    AID    RENDERED    DURING 
THE  PROGRESS   OF   THE   "SKETCHES." 


PREFACE. 

THESE  sketches  are  placed  before  the  public  without 
other  apology  for  their  appearance  than  may  be 
found  in  that  demand  for  information  on  the  subject 
treated  which  renders  a  work  of  the  character  a  positive 
necessity  of  the  times.  The  secret  political  movement 
here  introduced  to  the  reader  has  contributed  more  to 
the  sensational  character  of  American  politics,  and,  at 
the  same  time,  proven  a  more  influential  factor  in  those 
political  questions  with  which  we  have  dealt  as  a  people, 
than  any  or  all  contemporaneous  issues.  And  yet  nothing 
has  been  written  on  the  theme  bearing  a  just  proportion 
thereto,  —  absolutely  nothing,  —  if  we  subtract  the  un- 
known quantity  in  the  news  problem  of  the  day  from 
this  estimate,  and  for  reasons  as  varied  as  obvious.  We 
shall  not  weary  the  reader  with  a  statement  of  the  latter, 
nor  a  recitative  of  the  conditions  upon  which  they  are  or 
may  have  been  based.  It  is  enough  that  we  know  that 
ro  consecutive  nor  reliable  history  of  the  Order  could 
have  been  written  at  an  earlier  period ;  and  even  at 
this  date,  so  broken  and  fragmentary  are  those  passages 
referring  to  its  active  career,  compiled  during  months 
of  arduous  labor,  that  the  author  has  been  necessitated 
to  group  them  in  a  series  of  historical  sketches,  or  pen- 


PREFACE.  V 

pictures,  and  in  treating  the  subject  to  adopt  the  style 
of  the  romancist,  rather  than  that  of  the  historian.  He 
flatters  himself,  however,  that  while  the  reliability  of  his 
historical  information  is  not  impaired  by  this  method, 
that  the  work  will  thereby  be  rendered  more  attractive 
to  a  large  class  of  readers;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  as 
to  facts  connected  with  the  morale  of  the  weird  subject, 
he  is  not  hampered  by  these  considerations,  but  is  en- 
abled to  present  them  in  such  a  concise  form,  and  as 
sententiously  as  regards  style,  as  their  share  of  the  task's 
importance  renders  peremptory. 

From  the  moment  that  the  resolution  to  compose  these 
sketches  in  the  interest  of  the  reading  public  became  fixed 
in  the  author's  mind,  he  has  been  in  constant  communi- 
cation with  individuals  who  were  not  only  influential 
leaders  of  the  secret  movement,  but  held  high  official 
rank  under  it ;  so  that  the  authenticity  of  his  statements 
affecting  its  regime  is  placed  so  far  beyond  question  that 
the  reader  is  at  liberty  to  take  the  latter  as  ex  cathedra 
utterances  of  this  singularly  reticent  body.  Should  those 
passages  which  are  occupied  with  the  more  exciting  events 
of  K.  K.  K.  history  be  calculated  to  awaken  sensation  in 
the  public  breast,  it  is  a  contretemps  from  which  the  au- 
thor begs  to  excuse  himself  in  the  light  of  the  same  admis- 
sion, adding,  moreover,  that  he  has  availed  himself  of 
those  examples  which  have  gone  before  him  in  this  de- 
partment of  literature,  and  reserved  his  art-flourishes  for 

less  susceptible  divisions  of  the  theme, 
i* 


VI  PREFACE. 

The  intelligent  reader  will  see  no  politics,  nor  evidence 
of  political  bias  in  the  pages  of  this  volume,  if  he  will  do 
the  author  the  simple  fairness  of  its  thorough  examination. 
If  in  addressing  his  audience  from  the  status  in  quo,  to 
which  the  Ku-Klux  troubles  were  referred  in  their  origin 
and  bloody  career,  forcible  truths  are  given  their  due  em- 
phasis, he  begs  to  assure  the  public  that  his  utterances  are 
no  less  strongly  inflected  from  a  standpoint  of  contrasted 
locality  and  habits  of  political  thought.  A  man  profess- 
ing no  politics  but  those  of  his  grandfather,  and,  despite 
settled  opinions  favoring  such  partisanship,  is  strongly 
tempted  at  times  to  question  their  integrity,  would  hardly 
be  supposed  guilty  of  making  an  obnoxious  necessity  of 
some  other  man's  property,  in  this  most  precarious  of 
titled  possessions ;  and  lest  any  should  fail  to  perceive 
the  allegory  which  this  sentence  contains,  the  author 
begs  to  call  attention  to  it,  and  to  appropriate  the  situ- 
ation which  it  presents.  The  public  mind  is  so  excited 
regarding  such  topics  at  this  moment,  that  it  would  fail 
to  meet  expectation,  if  it  should  decline  to  suspect  every 
shadow  of  possessing  substance,  when  projected  from  so 
suspicious  a  direction  as  the  subject  chosen ;  and  feeling 
this,  and  perceiving  the  inutility  of  any  other  form  of  ar- 
gument, the  reader  is  invited,  in  conclusion,  to  adopt  the 
usual  method  in  such  inquiries,  and  determine  for  himself 
the  vexata  qu&stio. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

PAGE 

Terms  of  Southern  Surrender  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  — 
Candor  of  Paroled  Troops — "  Lee's  Ragamuffins  "  —  Generals 
Grant's  and  Sherman's  Proposed  Amnesty  —  The  '•  Rump 
Congress"  and  Disfranchisement  —  What  the  Latter  meant 
—  Issues  which  the  War  Settled  —  How  these  were  Revived 
by  the  Pending  Congress — Anarchy  in  the  South — The  Loyal 
League 13 

CHAPTER  II. 

:AUSES  OF  THE  K.  K.  K.  MOVEMENT. 


Situation  Produced  by  the  War  —  Discontented  Partisans  —  The 
War  District  in  the  South  —  Words  of  a  Northern  Tourist  — 
The  Curse  of  Slavery  —  President  Johnson  —  How  the  Work 
of  Reconstruction  was  Inaugurated — The  Law-making  Power 
vested  in  Dummy  Legislatures  —  Disfranchisement  —  En- 
franchisement —  The  Color  Issue  which  these  M<  asures 
brought — A  Singular  Peace  Policy  —  The  War  of  thi>  Con- 
servatives in  the  South  against  Radicalism  did  not  Revive 
Issues  concluded  by  the  late  Civil  Struggle,  as  the  latter 
Boasted  —  Loyal  Epithets  —  "Traitor,"  "Guerilla,"  "  South, 
ern  Bandit,''  etc. —  The  Shamelessness  of  the  State  Officials 

—  The  Uneducated  Negro  a  Law-giver  —  Organization  of  the 
Loyal  League  —  Some  of  its  .Peculiarities  —  The  K.  K.  K. 
Movement  as  an  Offset  to  the  League          .          .          .          .18 

CHAPTER  HI. 

THE    KLAN. 

A  Stirring  Episode  —  Raising  the  Dead  —  Night-Hawk  Abroad 

—  Moving  toward  the  Rendezvous  —  Grand  Cyclops  of  Den 
No.  5  —  Forming  the    Magic  Circle  —  K.  K.  K.  Drill  —  On 
the  March  —  The  Tout  Ensemble  of  a  Raiding  Body — Weird 
Costuming —  Banners  Inscribed  with  the  K.  K.  K.  Escutcheon 

—  How  the  Scene  Impressed  Beholders      .          .          .          .29 


Vlll  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K. 

PAGE 

Impressions  after  a  K.  K.  K.  Raid — Will  Morning  never  come? 
—  Conjectures  Regarding  the  Subject  in  the  Minds  of  those 
who  should  have  been  Prepared  to  Render  an  Opinion  — 
What  Superstitious  People  thought — The  Mill  Council  — 
K.  K.  K.  Arraigned  on  various  Charges,  and  Acquitted  for 
Want  of  Testimony  —  The  Subject  an  Enigma  —  Man  a  Super- 
stitious Animal  ........  38 

CHAPTER  V. 

K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS   WITH    THE    LOYAL   LEAGUE. 

A  Train  which  brought  Welcome  Passengers  —  Caucusing  in 
the  Open  Air  a  Dangerous  Proceeding — Correct  Surmises  — 
An  Old  Church,  Bequeathed  from  Generation  to  Generation, 
and  Liable  to  many  Uses  —  Brothers  and  Sisters  all  —  The 
L.  L.  in  full  Bloom — Storm  succeeded  by  a  Calm  —  Weird 
Visitors  — What  they  left  behind  them  —  Sudden  Panic  — The 
Rally  —  Still  in  Doubt  —  The  Chairman's  Stratagem — How 
it  didn't  Work  —  Despondent  Leaguers  taught  to  Act  for 
Themselves .........  49 

CHAPTER  VI. 

GHOST  FEATURE  OF  THE  MOVEMENT.       ITS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Contrasted  Views  of  the  Organization  inspired  by  its  Dealings 
with  the  Public  —  The  Colored  Man  in  the  South  —  Kindly 
Feeling  for  the  Race  cherished  by  Native  Southerners  — 
Households  Presided  over  by  Colored  Matrons  —  Superstitious 
Tendencies  of  Cuffey  —  His  Ideas  about  "  Ghosts,"  and  the 
Realm  which  they  Inhabit  —  Spook  Kinsfolk  —  The  ideal 
"Uncle  Tom's  Cabin" — Wherein  it  was  a  Failure  —  The 
"Infantile  Sex"  and  their  Greed  for  Ghost-lore  —  Painful 
Reminiscences  —  Use  to  which  the  Aged  Patriarch,  or  Bel- 
dam, as  the  Case  might  be,  put  their  Prerogative  —  Talent 
for  relating  Ghost  Stories  —  The  Young  White  Men  of  the 

South  trained  up  in  this  School    ...          .          .          .          .61 

CHAPTER  VII. 

DETAILS    OF   ORGANIZATIONS. 

A  Band  of  Regulators  whose  Force  at  this  time  numbered  a 
Half  Million  well-organized  and  perfectly  Drilled  Men  — 


CONTENTS.  IX 

PAGE 

Who  composed  its  Draft  —  Considerations  which  recom- 
mended it  to  the  Better  Classes  of  Society  —  Its  Haunts  — 
Oath-bound  Covenant,  and  Penalties  attached — Galloping  forth 
to  Predestined  Conquest —  It  proceeded  under  a  rigid  Consti- 
tutional System  —  Territorial  Subdivisions — Empire — Realm 

—  Province  —  Den  —  Grand  Wizard  and  his  Cabinet  —  Grand 
Giant  —  The  Commander  of  a  Den  —  Grand  Cyclops  —  Night- 
Hawks,  etc. — How  Members  were  Initiated  —  Proposed  Initi- 
ates might  Retire  if  Displeased  with  the  Conditions  of  Member- 
ship— How  far  the  Klan  was  "  Rebel "  in  its  Draft — Members 
of  the  State  Legislatures,  Congressmen,  and  Governors  of  States, 
took  its  Vows  upon  them — Its  Political  Suffrages  —  Compelling 
Ignorant  Colored  Men  to  relinquish  the  Franchise  —  K.  K.  K. 
Placards  —  Empty  Coffins    containing  Ukase  of  Banishment 
Carted  to  the  Doors  of  Obnoxious  White  Citizens  —  Its  Ideas 

of  Social  Decorum 71 

CHAPTER  VIII. 

K.  K.  K.  CUSTOMS. 

The  Klan  never  did  its  Work  by  Halves  —  How  General  Orders 
were  Transmitted —  Form  of  General  Order— Its  Imbroglios 
with  the  League — Avoided  Conflict  with  United  States  Troops 

—  League  Informers  —  K.  K.  K.  Intimidation  of  Witnesses  — 
Memento  Mori — Crusade  of  the  Ermined  Ranks — The  Klan  a 
Bitter  Enemy  of  those  Unorganized  Parties  of  Ruffians  who 
made  War  on  their  kind  in'  the  former's  Name  —  Its  Right  to 
Borrow  Sympathy  on  this  Exchange  a  Grave  Question  of  Doubt 

— Vendettas  Conducted  against  the  "  Shams."       .         .         .80 

CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  KLAN  IN  TENNESSEE. 

Misgovernment  in  Tennessee  —  The  Loyal  League  and  the  State 
Administration  —  The  K.  K.  K.  an  Outgrowth  of  the  Con- 
ditions which  the  former  Inspired — Rapid  Development  of 
the  Order  on  Tennessee  Soil  —  Its  Purposes  of  Revenge  — 
Legislation  on  the  Subject — Militia  called  out  and  Detec- 
tives Employed  —  The  State  pronounced  a  Ku-Klux  Barracks 

—  A  Simultaneous  Uprising  of  the  K.  K.  K.  throughout  the 
State  and  Concerted  Raids  against  the  L.  L.  Rendezvous  in 
various   Neighborhoods  —  Military  Accomplishments  of    the 
Grand  Wizard — Subcommanclers  in  Charge  of  the  Expedition 

—  Capture  of    Secret    Papers  —  Ku-Klux    Hollow -square  — 
Oath  administered  to  Captives 88 


X  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  X. 

THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE  IN  COUNCIL. 

PAGE 

Speech  of  Hon.  Bones  Button  before  the  State  Council  of  the 
Loyal  League  —  What  followed — Amusing  Contretemps  .  97 

CHAPTER  XI. 

EFFECTS  PRODUCED.      A   PERIOD   OF  ALARM. 

Excitement  throughout  the  State  —  Scenes  at  the  Capitol  — 
Government  Officials  Notified  of  the  Extent  of  the  Disaster  — 
A  Quorum  of  the  Legislative  or  Judicial  Bodies  not  Attain- 
able —  No  Departures  from  the  City  —  The  K.  K.  K.  Cabal 
Receiving  that  Attention  from  Caucusing  Legislators  which 
its  Importance  Demanded  —  A  Mob  at  the  State-House  —  At 
Sunset  the  Situation  Unchanged  —  A  Sortie  from  the  Capitol 

—  Mobs  along  the  Route  —  Seeking  Refuge  from  the  Excited 
Populace  —  Out  of  Danger — The  New  Situation  —  An  Ugly 
Specimen  of  the  Genus  Ku-Klux  —  The  Governor  Recovers 
from  the  Attitude  of  a  Suppliant  —  An  Amusing  Episode    .    .  107 

CHAPTER  XII. 

KU-KLUX   HORRORS   IN   TENNESSEE. 

The  Klan  Outlawed  —  A  Rash  Act  of  one  of  its  Dens  —  Negro 
Insurrectionists  Placed  in  the  Jail  at  Trenton  —  Subsequent 
Massacre  —  Detectives  in  Pursuit — Members  of  the  Order 
Indicted  —  Efforts  to  Convict  the  Accused  —  Affair  in  Obion 

—  Why  these  Horrors  are  Classed  as  Twin  Editions  —  De- 
scription of  Madrid  Bend  —  K.  K.  K.  Transactions   in  this 
Remote  Quarter  —  Planters'  Jealousy  —  Message  from  Mr.  J. 
to  the  Leaders  of  the  Party  —  Cool  Treatment  it  Received  — 
The  K.'s  Declare  their  Intention  of  Punishing   one  of  the 
Laborers  en  J.'s  Farm  —  His  Defiance  —  A  Fierce  Skirmish 

—  J.'s  Flight  —  Massacre  of  Fleeing  Blacks  —  Eight  Colored 
Men   taken   from   the    County  Jail   at  Troy  —  Their  Fate  a 
Mystery         .         .         .         ..         .         .         .         .         .  116 

CHAPTER  XIII. 

KU-KLUX    LAW. 

Any  person,  under  color  of  law,  etc.,  of  any  State,  depriving 
another  of  any  rights,  etc.,  secured  by  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  made  liable  to  the  party  injured,  7034  —  Pen- 


CONTENTS.  XI 

PAGE 

alty  for  conspiring,  by  force,  to  put  down  the  government  of 
the  United  States,  etc.,  7035  —  Conspirator's  doing,  etc.,  any 
act  in  furtherance  of  the  object  of  the  conspiracy,  and  injuring 
another,  liable  to  damages  therefor,  7035  —  What  to  be 
deemed  a  denial  by  any  State  to  any  class  of  its  people  of 
their  equal  protection  under  the  laws,  7036  .  .  .  125 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    K.  K.  K.  IN    LOUISIANA. 

Adventists  —  How  they  Practised  on  the  Parasitical  Blacks  — 
A  Little  Power  is  a  Dangerous  Thing  —  The  Political  Situa- 
tion in  '67  — The  State  Press  — The  Order  of  K.  K.  K.  in 
Louisiana  —  When  the  Government  Officials  were  first  Noti- 
fied of  its  Presence  —  The  Feeling  in  Grant  Parish — Riot 
Growing  out  of  a  Personal  Difficulty  —  Blacks  Entrenched  in 
the  Court-House  at  Colfax  —  Parley  —  Negroes  Refuse  to 
Surrender  —  A  Second  Defiance  —  Building  Fired  —  Massa- 
cre and  Termination  of  the  Bloody  Affair  —  Statistics  of 
Losses  in  the  Fight — Who  were  Responsible — The  White 
League  or  Camelias  —  Occupied  the  K.  K.  K.  Basis  in  Ex- 
ternals—  New  Orleans  Riots — Their  Effect  on  the  Return- 
ing Boards — Coushatta  —  K.  K.  K.  in  Texas  —  Border  His- 
tory Uneventful  .  . 134 

CHAPTER   XV. 

TALLY-HO  ! 

The  Situation  in  Georgia  —  Some  Things  which  maybe  Ex- 
plained —  Negro  Criminals — Taking  Refuge  in  the  Ocmulgee 
Swamps — Ku-Klux  Ambushed — A  Terrible  Oath  —  Uncle 
Jack  B.  —  "Nigger  Dogs  "in  the  "Goober  State"  —  Uncle 
Jack  Interviewed  by  the  Ku-Klux — What  came  of  it — Getting 
Ready  for  the  Chase  —  A  Pack  of  "  Negro  Dogs"  described 

—  In  the  Swamps  —  The  Opening  Chorus  —  A  Warm  Trail 

—  Disappointment  —  The    Lull  is   Past  —  A    Last   Effort  — 
Another  Crime  added  to  the  Calendar  —  Afresh  Start  —  At 
Bay  —  Tragical  Scene         .         .         .         .          .          .          -143 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

THE    "  SHAMS." 

The  Klan  in  South  Carolina — Officious  Interference  in  Politics — 
Atrocious  Performances  of  Men  in  Masks  —  The  "  Shams,"  or 
Counterfeit  Editions  of  K.  K.  K.  —  How  Organized  —  Their 
Vocabulary  of  Crime  —  South  Carolina  Fanatics  —  How  the 


Xll  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

"Sham"  Movement  Affected  the  K   K.  K. —  A  Resolution 
of  sine  die  Adjournment  —  K.  K.  K.  Horrors  on  the  Increase 

—  Rotten-Egg  Battalions. —  Citizens  sometimes  took  the  Exe- 
cution of  the  Law  into  their  Own  Hands  —  A  Case  in  Point.   154 

CHAPTER  XVII. 

A    MORAL   POINTED. 

Experiments  in  Metaphysics — An  Anecdote  .Dealing  with  the 
Characteristics  of  some  People  —  Another — Peculiarities  of 
the  Caucasian  —  Ditto  of  the  African  —  An  "  Awakening ' 
among  the  Children  of  the  New  Abrahamic  Covenant  — 
"  Brudder  Jones's  Preechin"' — What  it  Wrought  —  The 
Pale-Faced  Settlers  in  Distress  —  An  "Artifice"  of  Retrench- 
ment—  Eloquent  Discourse  —  Nineteenthly,  and  what  fol- 
lowed—  K.  K.  1£*.  redivivus — "Tramp,  Tramp,  Tramp,  the 
Boys  are  Marching,  etc."  —  A  Break  for  Tall  Timber  .  .  161 

CHAPTER  XVIII. 

K.  K.  K.  AS   A    FACTOR    IN   POLITICS. 

Late  Announcement  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  before  an 
Assembly  of  Englishmen  —  The  Secret  Societies  of  Europe 

—  True    Status  with    Regard  to  Current    Politics — Combin- 
ing   the    Offices  of   Regulator    and    Vigilante   with    that   of 
Politician  —  Its   Generical    Belongings  —  Few   Friends   Un- 
connected with  its  Patronage  —  Negative  Issue  which  it  In- 
troduced into  the  Great  Campaign  —  Occupying  a  Voice  in 
Southern    Counsels  —  Unprincipled   Plagiaries  —  Dangerous 
Sentimentalism  Awakened  at  the  North          .         .         *         .172 

CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE    LAST   OF   THE   K.'s. 

A  Popular  Fallacy — Karl  Konstant  Kain,  Esq.  —  Awaiting 
Events  —  An  Intricate  Subject  for  the  Hospitals  and  Doctors 

—  Getting  Even  with  the  Latter —  Yellow  Jack  on  a  Raid  — 
K.  K.  K.,  Esq.  in  his  Prison  Cell — Promoted  to  the  Hospital — 
An  Uncommon  Defiance — K.  Konstant  Kain  struggles  back 
to  Shore  —  "  Do  not  Weep  "  —  A  Critical  Moment  —  A  New 
Cast    and   entire    Change   of  Scenery  — "  Gruel"   did    it  — 
Waited  upon  by  a  Deputation  of  Citizens  —  "  Young  Man,  Go 
West"  —  The    New    Orleans    Pest- House  —  Konfounded, 
Krooked  Konundrum         .         .         .          .          .          .          .180 

CHAPTER  XX. 
CONCLUSION 189 


KU-KLUX  SKETCHES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTORY. 

Terms  of  Southern  Surrender  in  the  War  of  the  Rebellion  —  Can- 
dor of  Paroled  Troops  — "  Lee's  Ragamuffins  " —  Generals  Grant's 
and  Sherman's  Proposed  Amnesty  —  The  "  Rump  Congress"  and 
Disfranchisement  —  What  the  Latter  meant  —  Issues  which  the 
War  Settled  —  How  these  were  Revived  by  the  Pending  Congress 
—  Anarchy  in  the  South  —  The  Loyal  League. 

THE  treaty  concluded  between  the  conquered 
and  conquering  States  at  the  close  of  the  late 
civil  war,  while  arranging  all  external  differences 
and  disarming  physical  resistance,  yet  did  not  pro- 
vide for  certain  contingencies  arising  from  the  ethics 
of  the  dispute,  which  were  destined  to  exert  a 
powerful  influence  over  the  destinies  of  the  Ameri- 
can people.  Undoubtedly  the  Southern  troops  sur- 
rendered their  standards,  and  accepted  the  conquer- 
or's amnesty  in  good  faith,  and  we  can  but  believe 
that  their  allegiance  to  the  restored  Union  —  which 
had  been  promptly  tendered  —  would  have  been 
crowned  with  this  condition  but  for  the  disposition 


14  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

manifested  by  the  civil  power  to  review  the  pledges 
of  its  ambassadors  in  the  field,  and  interpose  sup- 
plementary conditions  that  could  have  no  other 
beneficial  effect  than  might  be  supposed  to  result,  in 
a  general  way,  from  the  humiliation  of  the  conquered, 
and  which  would  naturally  tend  to  a  revival  of  the 
casus  belli.  Having  returned  to  their  homes,  and 
been  soothed  into  accord  with  their  new  surroundings 
by  those  domestic  Penates  which  had  escaped  the 
dispensation  of  fire  and  sword,  through  which  they 
had  mutually  passed,  "  Lee's  ragamuffins,"  as  they 
had  been  styled  by  the  Jenkinses  of  the  period,  set 
resolutely  to  work  to  restore  their  fallen  fortunes, 
and,  at  the  same  time,  so  amend  the  shattered  social 
fabric  as  that  their  personal  and  property  rights 
might  have  that  organized  protection  which  cannot 
always  be  assured  in  times  of  civil  disturbance. 
That  they  had  forfeited  any  of  those  rights  common 
to  citizens  of  the  republic  under  which  they  lived, 
by  taking  up  arms  in  defence  of  a  great  national 
doctrine  which,  they  were  firmly  persuaded,  embodied 
its  genius,  if  it  did  not  represent  its  life,  was  a  bomb- 
proof theory  never  seriously  proposed  until  the 
glory  of  Appornattox  had  passed  into  history.  To 
be  denationalized,  even  in  the  sense  which  their 
severer  critics  ascribed  as  one  of  the  conditions  of 
their  voluntary  withdrawal  from  the  national  com- 
pact, carried  with  it  discomforts  of  no  mean  signifi- 
cance ;  but  to  have  the  ill  effects  of  their  so-called 
treason  visited  upon  them  in  the  commonest  con- 


INTRODUCTORY.  1$ 

cerns  of  social  being,  and  to  be  denied  a  part  in 
the  administration  of  those  State  governments  for 
whose  (supposed)  integrity  they  had  imperilled  their 
lives,  was  the  harshest  of  all  possible  reconstruction 
issues,  and  one  which  candid  thinkers  will  regard  a 
very  faint  reflection  of  that  peace  policy  which  the 
measure  purported  to  represent.  * 

Having  determined  to  supersede  the  military 
policy  enforced  against  the  Southern  States  by  the 
Union  generals,*  with  such  felicitous  results,  the 
National  Legislature,  which,  immediately  upon  the 
close  of  the  war,  had  developed  those  diagnostics 
which  caused  fair-minded  men  of  the  period  to  look 
upon  it  as  a  distempered  and  revolutionary  body 
(and  achieved  for  it  the  title  of  the  "  Rump  Con- 
gress "),  resolved  to  replace  it  by  another,  altogether 
dissimilar  in  type,  and  contrasting  strangely  with  it 
even  in  reference  to  the  objects  supposed  to  be  had 
in  view.  The  people  of  the  South,  contending  for 
the  doctrine  of  State  sovereignty,  and  pledging  their 
fortunes  and  their  lives  in  defence  of  a  supposed  in- 
alienable right,  and  the  masses  of  the  North  as 
strenuously  opposing  this  theory,  and  asserting  that 
no  emergency  could  arise  whereby  a  member  of 
the  Union  might  reclaim  its  sovereignty  from  the 
national  compact,  presented  an  issue  altogether 
susceptible  of  settlement.  And,  indeed,  proceeding 
upon  the  obvious  plan  that  where  questions  of  great 
practical  moment  cannot  be  adjudicated  otherwise, 
they  must  submit  to  the  a  fortiori  of  determined 


l6  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

majorities,  the  Southern  people  had  already  been 
driven  to  the  amplest  concessions  regarding  this 
measure;  and  whatever  doubts  they  may  have  re- 
tained affecting  the  metaphysics  of  the  discussion, 
were  quite  convinced  that  no  other  plan  of  adjust- 
ment would. prove  feasible. 

But  this  inference  (and  it  could  be  presented  in  no 
more  tangible  shape  at  the  time)  was  far  from  satis- 
fying that  singular  body  of  peace  commissioners 
who,  in  the  capacity  of  a  national  legislature,  had 
assembled  at  Washington,  not  only  to  reaffirm  the 
Southern  doctrine,  but  to  reconsider  all  the  mighty 
results  of  Grant's  and  Sherman's  campaigns,  by  dis- 
allowing the  claims  of  the  States  lately  in  rebel- 
lion, and  forcing  them  into  that  mourning  period  of 
so-called  reconstruction  and  social  and  political  an- 
archy, lately  terminated.  And  thus,  during  the  few 
years  succeeding  this  new  legislative  departure,  was 
presented  the  singular  spectacle  of  States  belonging 
to  the  National  Union,  who,  by  certain  inherent 
properties  of  their  being,  could  not  forfeit,  nor  sub- 
mit to  forfeiture  of  the  bond  which  established  their 
identity  therewith,  acting  independently  of  the  na- 
tional government  in  all  things,  save  those  non- 
essentials  represented  by  taxation,  the  performance 
of  military  duty,  etc. ;  and,  at  a  later  period,  through 
the  mysterious  processes  of  pardons,  congressional 
amnesties,  and  reconstruction,  becoming  (re)-invested 
with  the  only  sovereignty  which  it  was  claimed 
they  had  ever  possessed,  that  derived  from  the 
national  compact. 


INTRODUCTORY.  I/ 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  there  was  no  logical 
plan  supporting  that  system  of  political  manoeuvres 
set  in  motion  by  the  "  Rump  Congress,"  whose 
earliest  and  latest  results — the  social  and  political 
emasculation  of  the  white  freeman,  and  the  exalta- 
tion, in  like  respect,  of  the  negro  —  provoked  that 
state  of  anarchy  in  the  South  which  alone  could 
have  rendered  possible  the  great  secret  movement 
whose  history  we  are  to  discuss  in  these  pages. 

It  may  be  doubted  whether  the  mere  disfranchise- 
ment  of  the  citizens  of  these  States  —  though  that 
condition  were  supposed  to  include  every  right  and 
privilege  dear  to  freemen — would  have  prevailed  with 
this  people  to  embrace  those  extreme  measures 
which,  soon  after  this  event,  they  were  driven  to 
adopt  with  such  unanimity.  Loyal  League  suprem- 
acy, and  the  elevation  of  the  black  man  to  those 
political  rights  from  which  the  Southern  white  citi- 
zen had  been  so  recently  thrust  down,  were  far  more 
conclusive  factors  of  this  result ;  and  as  such,  in  all 
narratives  pretending  to  authenticity  in  delivering 
the  political  events  of  this  period,  will  be  more 
closely  blended  with  the  historical  fact. 
2*  B 


CHAPTER   II. 

CAUSES    OF   THE    K.  K.  K.  MOVEMENT. 

Situation  Produced  by  the  War  — Discontented  Partisans  —  The  War 
District  in  the  South  —  Words  of  a  Northern  Tourist  —  Wide- 
spread Destitution  —  The  Curse  of  Slavery  —  How  its  sudden 
Abolition  affected  Community  Wealth  in  the  Southern  States  — 
The  Political  Situation  even  more  Distressing  —  President  John- 
son —  How  the  Work  of  Reconstruction  was  Inaugurated  —  The 
Law-making  Power  vested  in  Dummy  Legislatures — Disfran- 
chisement  —  Enfranchisement — The  Color  Issue  which  these 
Measures  brought  —  A  Singular  Peace  Policy  —  The  War  of  the 
Conservatives  in  the  South  against  Radicalism  did  not  Revive 
Issues  concluded  by  the  late  Civil  Struggle,  as  the  latter  Boasted 
—  Loyal  Epithets  —  "  Traitor,"  "  Guerilla,"  "Southern  Bandit," 
etc. — Radical  Rule  in  the  South — The  Shamelessness  of  the  State 
Officials  —  The  Uneducated  Negro  a  Law-giver — Organization  of 
the  Loyal  League  —  Carpet-Bag  Administration  thereof — Negro 
Draft — Some  of  its  Peculiarities  —  The  K.  K.  K.  Movement  as  an 
Offset  to  the  League. 

WHEN  the  clouds  of  passion  and  prejudice  that 
brooded  over  the  American  States  in  the  be- 
ginning of  the  latter  half  of  the  present  century  had 
dropped  into  the  ocean  of  carnage,  which  during  four 
years  of  severe  revolutionary  penance  deluged  all 
their  borders,  the  return  to  those  opposite  tempers 
that  beget  in  men  a  desire  to  renew  the  pledges  of 

ancient  covenants-,  and  practise  the  ultima  thule  of 

18 


CAUSES    OF    THE    K.  K.  K.  MOVEMENT;         IQ 

the  Messianic  idea,  as  delivered  to  us  by  the  teach- 
ers of  the  Cross  (forgiveness),  was  pronounced  in 
degree  ;  but  while  it  exceeded  the  bare  tendency 
looked  for  by  men,  as  an  outgrowth  of  the  changed 
order  of  things,  this  moral  rehabilitation  of  the  body 
politic  was  effected  by  slow  and  painful  stages. 

Legions  of  men  might  have  been  found  on  either 
side  of  the  sectional  dead-line  who  cherished  ani- 
mosities which  no  philosophy  born  of  the  emotions 
could  preach  down,  and  before  which  even  those 
ministers  of  red  havoc  that  had  invaded  their  homes 
were  content  to  lower  their  weapons  and  view  in 
forbearance  a  virtue. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  while  the  widespread  dif- 
fusion of  the  war  burden  and  general  travail  had  a 
tendency  to  equalize  the  feeling  of  the  masses,  and 
awaken  a  desire  to  return  to  the  arts  of  peace,  that 
in  not  uncommon  instances  inhumanities  had  been 
practised,  and  bloody  reprisals  sought,  whose  issues 
were  wounds,  for  which  the  angel  of  peace  brought 
no  healing  on  his  wings.  Those  more  dignified  pas- 
sions which,  in  the  outset  of  hostilities,  had  swayed 
the  common  breast  in  the  rush  to  arms,  where  they 
had  not  become  wholly  extinct  in  a  desire  for 
reunion  and  renewed  fraternity,  as  we  have  shown, 
had  thus  degenerated  into  the  more  human  in- 
stincts of  individual  hate  and  revenge  which,  if 
sometimes  less  blameworthy,  are  far  more  implac- 
able. Those  who  cherished  the  latter,  however, 
were  discounted  in  all  their  efforts  to  discourage 


2O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

peace  proposals  by  the  feeling  of  distrust  which  their 
former  actions  had  inspired,  and,  very  soon  after  the 
Grant  and  Sherman  dictation  of  peace  terms,  were 
left  to  those  weaker  subterfuges  that  might  not  hope 
for  organized  support.  Many  of  this  discontented 
class  were  domiciled  on  Southern  soil,  and  it  maybe 
surmised  that  the  genius  of  desolation  that  walked 
forth  to  meet  them  on  their  homeward  passage  from 
Appomattox  and  Gainesville  inspired  them  with  yet 
warmer  resentments  against  the  authors  of  the  igno- 
minious defeat  under  which  they  suffered. 

The  war  district  of  the  South,  in  the  year  of  grace 
which  brought  about  military  amnesty,  furnished 
one  of  those  pictures  of  "  crownless  desolation  "  in 
the  history  of  the  world's  wars  for  which  the  art 
that  decorated  St.  Peter's  with  the  images  of  purga- 
torial griefs  could  have  possessed  no  adequate  color- 
ing, and  in  the  attempt  to  portray  which  talents  and 
scholarship  less  consummate  than  those  of  the  divine 
Angelo  must  have  issued  in  utter  failure. 

Cities  destroyed ;  towns  and  villages  laid  waste ; 
churches,  schools,  and  public  buildings  rotting  under 
the  hospital  plague,  or,  more  fortunate,  sleeping  in 
the  ashes  of  licensed  incendiarism  ;  wealthy  planta- 
tions stripped  of  their  agricultural  paraphernalia, 
and  relegated  to  the  domain  whence  they  had  been 
lately  redeemed  by  the  good  offices  of  the  pioneer ; 
and  in  room  of  these  —  landscape  horrors ;  vast  ceme- 
teries, whose  enforced  tribute  reached  unto  all  kin- 
dreds ;  flame-scarred  wastes  memorializing  a  past 


CAUSES    OF    THE    K.  K.  K.  MOVEMENT          21 

civilization,  and  extending  from  the  Alleghany  hills 
to  the  Georgian  forests,  and  from  the  rivers  to  the 
sea ;  and  brooding  over  all,  sole  relic  of  the  con- 
queror's power,  that  grim  sentinelcy  that  looked 
down  from  dismantled  ruins,  and  bleak,  wind-shaken 
towers,  upon  the  burial-place  of  the  domestic  arts. 

A  Northern  tourist,  who,  soon  after  the  close  of 
hostilities,  followed  the  trail  of  Sherman's  army  half 
across  the  State  of  Georgia,  and  explored  the  Shen- 
andoah  Valley  from  the  mountains  at  its  source  to 
the  mountains  at  its  foot,  thus  comments  upon  the 
scenes  which  beguiled  the  earlier  and  later  moments 
of  his  journey:  "And  this  lovely  heritage,  inter- 
spersed by  hills  and  valleys,  lakes  and  rivers,  which 
but  as  yesterday,  under  the  transforming  hand  of 
wealth  and  art  combined,  blossomed  as  the  rose, 
and  was  lighted  by  the  torch  of  America's  best  civil- 
ization, now,  and  under  these  severe  conditions  — • 
alas !  that  we  should  be  driven  to  concede  it — has 
sunk  back  into  aboriginal  unsightliness,  and  many 
portions  thereof  become  the  fitting  abode  of  those 
monsters  who,  warned  by  an  instinct  of  their  nature, 
shun  the  haunts  of  human  progress." 

But  not  only  did  this  ghost  of  desolation  hold  its 
solemn  rounds  where  wealth  and  its  monumental 
insignia  had  erst  been  set  up  —  more  practical  sub- 
jects were  included  in  the  fearful  summing  up  of 
Federal  conquest.  The  grain  crop  of  four  years 
had  been  consumed  by  the  requirements  of  both 
armies,  or  ruthlessly  committed  to  the  flames  through 


22  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

the  weak  policy  of  military  commanders;  export 
products  were  sacrificed  to  confiscation  needs ;  the 
agricultural  districts  were  bereft  of  all  labor  aids, 
and  stood  tenantless  and  barren ;  nothing  of  practical 
value — not  even  the  currency  of  the  country,  which 
had  been  demonetized  months  before  the  events  of 
which  we  particularly  write — greeted  the  impover- 
ished inhabitant,  who,  standing  in  this  presence, 
could  scarce  look  back  upon  four  years  of  bootless 
strife  with  regret  unmingled  with  repining. 

Slavery,  which  was  undoubtedly  a  great  evil,  and 
is  at  this  period  conceded  to  have  been  such  by  its 
most  clamorous  apologists  of  ante  bellum  times,  was 
nevertheless  the  great  prop  of  community  wealth  in 
those  States  where  it  had  been  recognized  by  the 
government ;  and  when  (keeping  in  view  the  wide- 
spread destitution  to  which  we  have  called  atten- 
tion) this  pet  institution  was  wrecked  on  the  break- 
ers of  war,  property  affairs  in  all  their  borders  reached 
an  ebb  beyond  which,  it  would  have  seemed,  they 
could  not  have  been  impelled  by  even  a  retribution 
born  of  that  highest  example  of  social  evil  —  State 
treason.  The  male  inhabitants  of  the  South  thus 
found  themselves,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  not  only 
stripped  of  fortune,  and  all  that  pertained  to  a 
farmer's  inheritance,  in  the  strictly  agricultural  com- 
munities to  which  they  belonged,  but  without  busi- 
ness capacity  or  business  employ,  had  the  former 
been  supplied,  and  under  the  explicit  disfavor  of  the 
government  administration,  in  all  its  branches,  with 
all  that  that  implied. 


CAUSES    OF    THE   K.  K.   K.  MOVEMENT.         23 

But  while  the  physical  straits  to  which  the  inhabi- 
tants of  these  States  were  driven  almost  exceeded 
belief,  and  challenged  the  sympathies  of  Christen- 
dom, they  were  met  at  this  time  with  a  yet  more 
incorrigible  evil,  as  we  have  already  prevised,  and 
one  from  which  all  attempts  at  escape  seemed  likely 
to  plunge  them  into  deeper  miseries.  Despite  the 
generous  policy  inaugurated  by  the  commanders  of 
the  Federal  forces  at  the  close  of  the  civil  conflict, 
and  the  good  intentions  of  President  Johnson,  who 
had  lately  succeeded  to  the  chief  magistracy,  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States  at  this  time  resolved 
upon  a  system  of  oppressions  towards  this  people 
whose  parallel  is.  not  to  be  found  in  modern  history. 
This  work  was  inaugurated  by  the  passage  of  laws 
whose  effect  was  a  virtual  dismemberment  of  the 
Union ;  all  the  efforts  of  these  States  to  participate 
in  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  the  general 
government  being  in  pursuance  thereof  promptly 
discountenanced. 

The  movement  which  followed  was  in  keeping 
therewith,  and  involved  the  withdrawal  from  the 
State  governments  of  all  their  prerogatives  as  such. 
The  civil  power  was  vested  in  military  satraps,  who 
were  commissioned  to  govern  these  provinces  (for 
such  they  had  become);  or  where  the  work  of  re- 
constructing or  radicalizing  the  populace  was  more 
advanced,  and  it  was  necessary  to  preserve  the  form 
of  the  civil  machine,  State  elections  were  impro- 
vised and  conducted  under  the  shadow  of  overawing 


24  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

bayonets.  The  administration  of  justice  was  as 
summarily  withdrawn  from  the  legal  functionaries, 
and  given  over  to  the  Federal  judicatories  ;  or,  what 
was  far  worse,  placed  in  the  hands  of  that  most 
ignorant  and  despotic  of  all  judiciary  systems  — 
military  courts-martial.  The  law-making  power,  in 
its  turn,  was  farmed  out  to  dummy  legislatures, 
which  in  their  constitution,  if  not  in  the  modus  of 
their  creation,  were  fac-similes  of  the  great  "  rump  " 
model  which  had  made  laws  before  them,  and  which, 
with  its  two-thirds  majority  and  grand  faculty  for 
caucusing,  was  quite  equal  to  all  the  devices  of  veto- 
ing chief  magistrates.  The  provision  disfranchising 
the  white  men  of  the  South  had  been  contempora- 
neously declared,  and  was  a  part  of  that  remarkable 
series  which  had  empanoplied  the  negro  race  with 
all  the  political  belongings  of  freedom. 

The  policy  adopted  by  the  Southern  people  in 
concerting  resistance  to  the  attacks  of  these  modern 
Sejanus  was  the  only  one  which  could  have  suc- 
ceeded, and,  whatever  else  may  be  said  regarding  its 
morality,  was  just  to  themselves  and  disinterested 
mankind.  They  did  not  as  a  class,  nor  as  individ- 
uals, conceive  for  a  moment  that  their  allegiance  to 
the  constitution  and  laws  of  their  country  was  in- 
volved in  the  issues  of  the  political  war  which  they 
waged  against  Radicalism,  though  constantly  re- 
minded to  that  intent  by  their  enemies,  whose 
vocabulary  of  loyal  epithets  included  such  choice 
terms  as  "rebel,"  "traitor,"  "guerilla,"  "Southern 


CAUSES    OF    THE    K.  K.  K.  MOVEMENT.         2$ 

bandit,"  etc.,  and  their  integrity  as  citizens  of  the 
United  States  government  they  never  ceased  to  in- 
sist upon,  though  their  leaders  foretold  (and  it  has 
since  been  verified)  that  they  would  never  succeed 
in  establishing'  it  until  the  movement,  which  they  had 
inaugurated  under  so  many  difficulties,  had  accom- 
plished the  disestablishment  of  Radicalism  at  the 
national  capitol. 

The  details  of  the  political  strife  of  those  years 
are  unimportant  to  our  narrative  ;  but  the  intelligent 
reader  will  perceive  nothing  occult  in  our  purpose  if 
we  call  attention  to  the  long  imprisonments  to  which 
many  of  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  movement  were 
subjected,  the  causeless  sequestration  of  public  and 
private  properties,  the  numberless  criminal  prosecu- 
tions inaugurated  in  obedience  to  the  whims  of  the 
"  trooly  loil,"  the  immense  peculations  chargeable  to 
the  State  governments  under  Radical  rule,  and,  last- 
ly, the  open  robberies  perpetrated  under  the  name 
and  with  the  sanction  of  the  national  legislature. 

The  governments  in  the  South  —  State,  district, 
and  municipal — were  negro  governments,  and  if, 
•in  a  few  exceptions,  this  characterization  was  but 
partial,  it  was  where  the  negro  alternated  with  that 
pestiferous  nomad  —  the  carpet-bagger  —  in  admin- 
istering government  for  his  late  master. 

Favored  by  this  condition  of  public  affairs,  that 
remarkable  secret  order  —  the  Loyal  League  —  found 
its  way  into  the  Southern  country,  and  was  recom- 
mended to  the  negro  by  its  politics,  its  dark  lantern, 


26  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

its  facilities  for  the  transaction  of  evil  deeds,  its  ave- 
nues of  escape  afforded  to  the  criminal,  and,  finally, 
its  picturesque  ceremonial,  in  which  latter  we  can 
see  no  cause  to  dispute  his  taste  or  judgment.  Some 
description  of  this  singular  body,  which  was,  we  be- 
lieve, in  a  measure  unknown  to  the  great  mass  of 
the  people  of  the  Northern  States,  will  not  be  deemed 
digressive  at  this  point. 

The  order  was  subdivided  into  neighborhood  or- 
ganizations, and  the  heads  of  these  were  white  men, 
while  their  vertebral  force  was  recruited  from  the 
voting  population  above  described ;  the  chef  being 
as  completely  en  rapport  with  his  African  brother  as 
if  he  had  been  in  truth  his  congener,  and  not  simply 
dependent  on  him  for  patronage.  Their  locus  in  quo 
was  nowhere  and  everywhere,  —  each  city  and  town 
numbering  its  lodges  and  sub-lodges,  and  the  diffu- 
sion thereof,  throughout  the  agricultural  districts, 
being  in  the  somewhat  extravagant  ratio  of  one  to 
the  square  mile.  Their  object  was  plunder.  Their 
raids,  directed  against  the  white  trash,  contemplated 
everything  that  might  be  classed  under  the  term  com- 
missaries, and  ranged  from  the  pig-pen  to  the  poultry- 
yard,  and  from  an  ear  of  corn  to  a  well-grown  tuber. 
The  "  wee  sma'  hours  ayont  the  twal  "  was  the  fes- 
tive time  of  night  selected  by  the  "  loil  "  Moses  and 
his  dusky  Israel  for  their  exodus  from  forest  or 
cavern,  and,  as  they  marched,  the  flesh-pots  of  the 
enemy  disgorged  their  treasure,  and  animated  nature 
held  its  breath.  The  goods  and  chattels  of  the  un- 


CAUSES    OF    THE    K.  K.  K.  MOVEMENT.         2/ 

reconstructed  were,  by  act  of  Congress,  their  lawful 
prey,  and  if  their  foraging  expeditions  were  con- 
ducted by  moonlight,  it  was  from  constitutional 
considerations,  and  not  through  any  well-grounded 
fear  of  resistance  on  the  part  of  the  intimidated 
whites. 

The  conclaves  of  the  society  were  held  nightly, 
and  during  the  election  campaigns,  which  progressed 
with  tolerable  regularity  during  eight  months  of  the 
year,  their  en  masse  assemblages,  or  political  rallies, 
occupied  each  alternate  day  of  the  week  (the  off  day 
being  devoted  to  itinerant  duty  among  neighboring 
lodges).  A  weak  solution  of  the  Christian  religion 
involved  in  the  superstitions  which  they  everywhere 
practised,  aided  them  in  their  delusions  concerning 
politics ;  and  it  is  not  exaggeration  to  state  that  the 
remaining  four  months  of  the  year,  under  the  above 
estimate,  were  devoted  to  their  so-called  revival 
meetings,  which  never  failed  to  prove  an  insufferable 
burden  to  the  pork-  and  vegetable-raising  commu- 
nities on  which  they  were  billeted.  Their  religion 
was,  in  truth,  a  part  of  their  politics,  and,  on  occa- 
sion, their  ministry  their  most  serviceable  performers 
on  the  hustings. 

These  twin  ideas  of  religion  and  politics  having 
been  introduced  into  the  League,  dominated  the 
order  so  completely  that  its  secular  business  was 
often  arrested  by  a  call  to  prayers,  and  more  fre- 
quently than  otherwise  its  order  .of  business  termi- 
nated by  a  twilight  homily  on  the  total  cussedness 


28  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

and  final  unreliability  of  all  who  anchored  their  faith 
to  the  Conservative  idea  in  politics. 

This  new  element,  however,  was  far  from  benefit- 
ing the  League ;  its  morals  grew  infinitely  worse ; 
its  larcenies  became  more  frequent,  and  were  prose- 
cuted on  a  larger  scale ;  it  became  more  arrogant  in 
its  assumption  of  exclusive  political  right  on  unre- 
constructed territory ;  and,  finally,  assayed,  through 
the  medium  of  politics,  to  accomplish  a  social  refo.rm 
that  would  elevate  the  ignorant  and  semi-savage  race 
which  it  represented  to  family  equality  with  a  class 
of  beings  who  recognized  no  title  to  such  a  claim, 
but  that  of  honorable  ancestry  and  a  spotless  name. 
Beyond  the  attempt,  however,  which  was  warmly 
seconded  by  the  national  Congress,  it  is  needless  to 
say  that  nothing  was  ever  done;  and  this  extreme 
of  rash  legislation,  undertaken,  it  would  seem  at  this 
date,  with  no  other  object  in  view  than  the  humilia- 
tion of  a  proud  and  constitutionally  sensitive  enemy, 
proved  in  the  end  the  downfall  of  the  League.  From 
this  moment,  it  was  met  by  a  counter  movement, 
which,  while  possessing  an  organization  in  many 
respects  superior  to  its  own,  covered  its  movements 
with  the  same  veil  of  secrecy ;  caucused  with  the 
same  regularity;  foraged  on  its  enemies  with  equal 
pertinacity  and  greed ;  and,  finally,  proceeded  on  its 
mission  with  the  same  fell  purpose  of  triumphing  by 
fair  means  or  foul. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE   KLAN. 

A  Stirring  Episode  —  Raising  the  Dead  —  Night-Hawk  Abroad  — 
Moving  toward  the  Rendezvous  —  Grand  Cyclops  of  Den  No.  5  — 
Forming  the  Magic  Circle  —  Raiding  Command  —  K.  K.  K.  Drill 
—  On  the  March  — The  Tout  Ensemble  of  a  Raiding  Body  — 
Weird  Costuming  —  Arms  and  Accoutrements  —  Banners  Inscribed 
with  the  K.  K.  K.  Escutcheon  —  How  the  Scene  Impressed  Be- 
holders. 

IN  the  month  of  November,  A.  D.  1866,  in  that 
portion  of  Western  Tennessee  known  to  dwellers 
as  the  Kentucky  purchase,  was  enacted  a  scene  which 
possessed  romantic  features  entitling  it  to  rank  with 
the  most  exquisite  fancies  of  Lamartine  or  Moore, 
and  which,  conscious  of  our  inability  to  improve  on 
its  smallest  detail,  is  presented  to  the  reader  without 
any  fictitious  adornment  whatever. 

In  one  of  the  apartments  of  the  elegant  mansion 
of  Paul  Thorburn,  Esq.,  was  assembled  a  company 
of  pale  watchers,  who  seemed  thoroughly  enlisted  in 
behalf  of  their  sick  charge  —  an  adult  son  of  this 
gentleman,  who  for  weeks  had  been  prostrated  by  a 
virulent  fever.  It  was  plainly  to  be  seen  from  the 
countenances  of  the  good  Samaritans  who  had  been 
lingering  near  the  couch  —  but  now  conversed  apart, 
3*  29 


3O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

or  telegraphed  signals  to  those  who  waited  without 
—  that  all  hope  of  the  invalid's  recovery  had  vanished. 
Since  the  physician  had  passed  from  the  apartment, 
whispering  an  attendant  that  he  would  return  no 
more,  the  furniture  of  the  room  had  been  readjusted 
as  if  in  obedience  to  the  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  its 
owners ;  that  portion  of  the  attendants  who  lingered 
had  left  their  seats,  and  stood  with  folded  arms  and 
reclined  heads,  and  the  entire  surroundings  wore 
that  abstracted  and  melancholy  air  which  the  reader 
cannot  fail  to  have  associated  in  fancy  with  such 
scenes. 

The  mother  of  the  young  man,  pale  and  distraught 
from  long  weeping,  had  imprinted  a  kiss  of  heart- 
breaking farewell  on  the  brow  of  her  son,  and  re- 
moved her  station  to  a  neighboring  window,  whence 
she  looked  out  upon  the  autumn  landscape,  and 
anon,  as  if  seeking  aid  from  afar,  up  at  the  pale 
empress  of  night,  which,  as  it  neared  the  meridian, 
projected  great  bars  of  golden  light  into  the  apart- 
ment. Her  attitude  had  not  changed  for  many 
minutes,  as  if  the  burden  of  grief  that  pressed 
inwardly  upon  her  had  taken  away  the  power  of 
motion,  and  now  reclined  against  the  casement — in 
form  and  feature  immobile  as  sculptured  Psyche, 
the  tableau  engrossed  the  attention  of  all  who 
lingered  in  the  vicinity.  It  may  have  been,  too, 
that  by  means  of  that  subtle,  unperceivable  line  of 
communications,  established  between  the  emotions 
of  beings  and  coming  events  which  are  to  effect  their 


THE    KLAN.  3! 

destinies,  a  signal  had  been  telegraphed  to  the  wait- 
ing company ;  for  from  the  moment  that  they  had 
been  attracted  towards  this  scene,  their  gaze  had  not 
once  been  removed  from  the  form  of  the  pale  watcher, 
who  suddenly,  and  as  if  wrought  upon  by  the  con- 
ditions of  some  outward  wonder,  developed  a  strong 
twitching  of  the  facial  muscles,  and  a  dilatation  of  the 
pupils  of  the  eye,  which  took  in  the  landscape  in  the 
direction  of  the  public  road ;  then  a  nervousness  of 
manner,  betokening  strong  inward  excitement;  then 
an  expansion  of  frame,  whose  lineaments,  clear  cut 
against  the  bas-relief  of  starlight,  took  on  Titanic 
proportions  ;  and  instantly,  as  if  in  keeping  with  this 
strange  pantomime,  a  hush,  deep,  all-pervading,  filled 
the  apartment,  broken  at  length  by  an  audible  sigh 
from  the  couch  of  the  invalid,  followed  by  the 
frightened  whisper,  "  Mother !  "  The  reply,  exploded 
in  clear,  ringing  tones,  was  addressed  to  nobody, 
transfixed  everybody,  and  started  waves  of  sound 
that  chased  each  other  through  every  nook  and 
angle  of  the  large  building  —  "  Ku  Klux  !  " 

Six  hours  before  the  occurrence  narrated  here,  a 
solitary  horseman,  mounted  on  a  strong  charger, 
might  have  been  seen  galloping  along  the  highways, 
and  thridding  the  bridle-paths  of  the  voting  precinct, 
since  famous  as  Crow  Hide  township.  Except  a 
brace  of  pistols  attached  to  the  pommel  of  his  saddle, 
and  a  something  in  his  deportment  which  said  as 
plainly  as  words,  "  stand  out  of  the  way,"  there  was 
nothing  in  the  appearance  of  the  cavalier  to  excite 


32  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

special  wonder ;  yet  he  succeeded  so  well  in  drawing 
upon  himself  the  attention  of  mortality  thereabouts 
that  there  was  scarce  an  inhabitant  in  all  Crow  Hide 
who  had  not  obtained  a  glimpse  of  himself,  or  his 
foam-flecked  steed,  as  they  flashed  by,  convoyed  by 
clouds  of  dust,  and  imprecated  by  all  the  choristers 
of  the  farm-yard.  The  windows  of  habitations  along 
the  route  were  thrown  open  ere  the  apparition  was 
fairly  in  sight;  children  at  play  were  attracted  by 
the  strange  cynosure,  and  hurried  to  obtain  counsel 
of  parents  regarding  it ;  horsemen,  who  were  met 
under  whip  and  spur,  drew  rein  suddenly,  and  gazed 
anxiously  after  their  strange  counterpart,  and  anon, 
as  if  slow  in  making  up  their  minds  at  the  object 
which  hid  him  from  view ;  and  in  fact  it  was  as 
clearly  apparent,  to  even  such  of  the  hogs  and 
chickens  as  were  not  frightened  out  of  their  wits, 
that  a  seven  days'  wonder  was  being  enacted  in  Crow 
Hide,  as  it  was  to  more  sentient  creatures  that  the 
intangible  something  in  the  wind  was  not  lawful 
subject  for  gossip.  But  if  the  majority  were  involved 
in  doubt,  and  resolved  to  forget  the  incident  as  the 
most  comfortable  way  of  disposing  of  it,  some  there 
were  who  had  cracked  the  conundrum,  as  was 
evident  from  their  knowing  deportment,  their  desire 
to  avoid  conversation  on  this  topic,  and  finally,  a 
disposition,  plainly  manifested,  to  convert  the  re- 
mainder of  the  afternoon  into  a  holiday  season. 

As    the   twilight   hour   approached,  stables  were 
visited,  trappings  placed  in  readiness,  and  all  those 


THE    KLAN.  33 

indispensables  of  a  scout's  toilet  which  might  be 
performed  in  secrecy,  executed.  These  prepara- 
tions required  brief  time,  and  within  an  hour  after 
night  had  fallen,  steeds  were  being  caparisoned, 
riders  were  mounting  in  hot  haste  and  moving  off 
by  clandestine  routes,  the  roads  were  filling  with 
cavalcades  of  armed  men,  who  seemed  bent  on  some 
undertaking  of  "  pith  and  moment ; "  and  all  these 
movements  proceeding  with  such  secrecy  that  even 
the  watch-dogs  of  the  vicinity,  though  vaguely  noti- 
fied of  the  affair,  hesitated  to  interfere.  Though 
moving  by  different  routes,  the  various  squadrons 
seemed  tending  to  a  common  rendezvous  (located  at 
a  point  on  the  outskirts  of  the  settlement),  a  fact 
which  was  made  further  apparent  by  the  constant 
recruits  which  were  being  added  to  each,  at  points 
where  the  highway  was  intersected  by  country- 
roads  and  by-paths. 

Approaching  a  dense  forest,  a  sound  resembling 
the  hooting  of  an  owl  was  heard,  and,  turning  their 
horses'  heads  in  the  direction  whence  it  proceeded, 
the  various  companies,  as  yet  unorganized,  galloped 
forward.  The  Grand  Cyclops  of  Den  No.  5,  Realm 
No.  3,  accompanied  by  two  of  his  faithful  Night- 
Hawks  (scouts  of  the  body),  had  been  on  the  ground 
in  adyance  of  his  most  punctual  followers,  and  when 
the  magic  circle  had  been  formed,  and  the  password 
circulated,  that  officer  presented  himself  in  their 
midst,  and  by  the  use  of  a  monosyllable,  whose 
signification  was  understood  by  all,  indicated  that 


34  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

the  council-fires  would  not  be  lighted.  Nothing 
was  added,  and  no  word  spoken  in  reply;  but  so 
thoroughly  had  his  full  meaning  been  anticipated, 
that,  within  thirty  minutes  from  the  time  this  vague 
proclamation  was  issued,  the  weird  brotherhood  had 
dispersed,  and,  in  full  raiding  costume  and  bearing 
aloft  the  banners  of  the  order,  were  awaiting  the 
commands  of  their  trusted  leader  at  a  point  two 
miles  distant.  The  command  moved  in  obedience 
to  signs,  and  on  this  occasion,  notified  by  a  signal 
which  must  have  been  unintelligible  to  persons  not 
versed  in  their  strange  drill,  they  wheeled  rapidly 
into  line,  and  instantly  broke  off  from  the  right  of 
the  column  in  double  files,  the  leaders  pushing  their 
horses  to  a  gallop.  No  word  was  spoken  as  the 
command  moved,  and  so  completely  had  that 
ghostly  spell  that  attended  all  the  movements  of 
the  night-riders  fallen  upon  the  weird  column,  that 
even  the  horses  trod  warily,  and  beasts  of  the 
forest,  startled  by  a  glimpse  of  the  dim  procession, 
in  vain  consulted  their  organs  of  hearing  for  con- 
firmatory sounds. 

This  body  of  raiders  was  that  viewed  from  the 
sick  chamber  in  the  Thorburn  mansion,  described  in 
the  opening  of  this  chapter;  and  we  shall  seek  at 
this  juncture  to  present  to  the  reader  a  pen-picture 
of  the  formidable  apparition  as  it  passed  along  the 
highway,  in  full  view,  and  within  fifty  paces  of  the 
groups  of  excited  observers  who  looked  out  from  its 
windows. 


THE    KLAN.  35 

Perhaps  the  feature  of  the  pageant  that  would 
have  been  soonest  apparent  to  the  beholder  was 
that  representing  its  means  of  locomotion.  The 
horses  of  the  raid  were  powerful  specimens  of  their 
race,  and  furnished  with  all  those  cap-a-pie  appoint- 
ments of  K.  K.  K.  regalia  that  were  prominent  in 
other  departments  of  the  expedition.  Their  bodies 
were  completely  enveloped  in  curtains  of  black 
cloth,  worn  under  the  saddle,  and  fastened  at  the 
neck  to  a  corselet  of  the  same  material,  the  skirts 
of  the  former  extending  below  their  knees.  Over 
their  heads  were  masks,  much  of  the  same  descrip- 
tion as  those  worn  by  their  riders,  the  material 
being  of  a  dark  color,  and  openings  of  suitable 
width  having  been  contrived  for  the  eyes  and  nos- 
trils. Each  steed  was  decorated  also  with  a  white 
plume,  carried  vertically  above  the  head ;  and  on 
the  right  and  left  of  the  housings  of  black  cloth 
which  enveloped  their  bodies,  appeared  the  mystical 
letters  K.  K.  K.  Their  trappings  otherwise  were 
army  saddles  of  uniform  pattern,  and  bridles  sup- 
plied with  the  regulation  bit,  used  in  both  armies  at 
the  close  of  the  war. 

The  riders  who  bestrode  these  steeds  were  even 
more  fantastically  arrayed,  and  in  the  uniforms  which 
they  wore  the  same  sacrifice  of  taste  to  picturesque- 
ness  was  to  be  observed.  The  most  prominent  fea- 
ture of  their  ghostly  toilet  was  a  long  black  robe, 
extending  from  the  head  to  the  feet,  and  decorated 
with  innumerable  tin  buttons,  an  inch  and  a  half  in 


36  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

diameter,  which,  under  the  influence  of  the  starlight, 
shone  like  miniature  moons.  These  robes  were  slit 
in  front  and  rear,  in  order  that  they  might  not  im- 
pede the  movements  of  the  rider,  and  were  secured 
about  the  waist  with  scarfs  of  red  silk.  Over  their 
faces  they  wore  masks  of  some  heavy  material ;  the 
apertures  for  the  eyes,  nose,  and  mouth  (which  were 
ample  for  these  purposes)  being  lined  with  red  cloth. . 
The  head-dress  was  even  more  unique,  and  consisted 
of  tall  black  caps,  helmet-shaped,  and  provided  with 
havelocks,  resembling  those  used  by  the  military 
in  the  late  war.  These  were  also  decorated  with 
the  regulation  button,  and,  when  worn  by  officers 
of  commissioned  rank,  supplemented  by  gorgeous 
plumes,  white,  red,  or  blue,  according  to  rank.  Each 
individual  wore  about  his  waist,  in  addition  to  the 
scarf  to  which  we  have  called  attention,  a  belt  sup- 
porting two  large  army  pistols,  in  scabbards ;  and 
on  the  flaps  of  the  latter,  embroidered  in  white  char- 
acters, appeared  the  devices  of  the  order  —  skull  and 
cross-bones,  and  mystical  K  K  K.  The  banners 
which  were  three  in  number,  and  carried  at  intervals 
in  the  procession,  were  of  black  silk,  supporting  in 
the  centre  two  lions  rampant  on  either  side  of  the 
regulation  skull  and  cross-bones,  and  on  the  right, 
left,  and  middle,  at  top,  the  mystic  "  K." 

Absolute  stillness  reigned  over  the  weird  column, 
no  man  being  permitted  to  speak,  even  in  a  whisper, 
while  the  large  bridle-bits,  Texas  spurs,  and  other 
appendages  of  a  cavalry  outfit  likely  to  create  alarm 


THE    KLAN.  37 

ft 

in  passing  through  quiet  neighborhoods  were  care- 
fully muffled.  These  details  completed  the  unsightly 
pageant;  and  of  the  party  who  viewed  it,  as  it  moved, 
at  funereal  pace,  through  the  moonlit  precincts  of 
the  Thorburn  estate,  on  the  evening  referred  to,  no 
individual  ever  forgot  the  scene,  or  was  ever  known 
to  whisper  an  irreverent  word  concerning  the  objects, 
plans,  or  creed  of  the  festive  K.  K.  K. 
4 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K. 

Impressions  after  a  K.  K.  K.  Raid  —  Will  Morning  never  come  ?  — 
Conjectures  Regarding  the  Subject  in  the  Minds  of  those  who 
should  have  been  Prepared  to  Render  an  Opinion  —  What  Super- 
stitious People  thought  —  The  Mill  Council  —  Boys  and  Colored 
Men  —  K.  K.  K.  Arraigned  on  various  Charges,  and  Acquitted  for 
Want  of  Testimony — The  Subject  an  Enigma — Man  a  Super- 
stitious Animal  —  Education  the  Best  and  a  Poor  Antidote. 

ON  the  immemorial  night  referred  to  Crow  Hide 
slept  uneasily,  for  besides  an  indefinable  some- 
thing in  the  air,  that  brooded  over  men's  spirits  like 
a  spell  from  the  other  world,  there  were  strange 
sounds  from  without  creeping  into  hallways  and 
banging  at  the  doors  of  apartments ;  dogs  were  dis- 
consolate, and  whined  incessantly ;  barn-yard  echoes 
stole  in  on  every  breeze ;  and  the  moon-beams,  fall- 
ing into  windows,  and  past  the  forms  of  sleepers,  by 
their  jerky,  undecided  motion,  said,  as  plainly  as 
words,  "  We  are  dissatisfied  with  ourselves."  Chil- 
dren tossed  their  arms  about  wildly  as  they  slept, 
and  when  wakened,  requested  that  their  couches 
might  be  removed  from  the  neighborhood  of  win- 
dows. A  weird  somnambulism  took  possession  of 
the  forms  of  men  and  women,  leading  them  to  doors 

38 


SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K.         39 

and  windows,  and  sometimes  rents  in  the  wall,  where 
they  awoke  to  find  themselves  in  listening  attitudes, 
and  to  listen.  Horses  neighed,  cattle  lowed,  and 
chains  which  might  have  been  attached  to  watch- 
dogs, but  were  not,  made  the  circuit  of  buildings,  or 
were  tossed  against  the  boundaries  of  closes. 

Would  morning  never  come?  Girls  and  timid 
boys  revolved  this  query  in  their  minds,  building  a 
faint  hope  thereon;  but  when  they  held  their  breaths 
and  listened,  they  found,  as  their  fears  had  informed 
them,  that  the  clock  pendulums,  hammering  away 
at  the  seconds,  made  no  gap  in  time.  Others,  who 
felt  no  certain  fear,  but  a  boding  uneasiness,  thought 
to  count  the  moments  on  their  fingers  while  the 
gloom  lasted ;  but  so  frequently  were  they  inter- 
rupted by  strange  sounds  from  without,  that  they 
found  themselves  ever  recurring  to  the  point  where 
they  began.  Even  the  chickens  on  their  roosts 
were  witch-ridden,  and  crowed  lustily  for  day,  when 
the  half-grown  moon  had  not  yet  passed  meridian. 

But  "  the  longest  lane  has  its  turn,"  at  one  or  both 
ends,  and  when  the  shadows  slept,  and  the  gray 
messengers  of  morn  tripped  along  the  eastern  hills, 
the  enchanter's  wand  was  lifted  from  its  hills  and 
valleys,  and  Crow  Hide,  unclosing  its  eyes,  gave 
thanks.  Now  a  breath  of  peacefulness  had  come 
upon  its  affairs,  and  so  radiant  seemed  the  morning 
skies,  and  so  innocent  of  evil  the  sweet  landscapes 
lying  bathed  in  dew-sparkles,  that  there  were  few 
who  looked  abroad  without  being  inspired  with 


4<D  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

doubts  of  the  existence  of  the  latter,  even  as  an 
abstraction.  Even  those  who  had  been  controlled 
by  the  most  abject  emotions  while  the  terrors  of  the 
night  lasted,  when  morning  came,  stood  up  boldly 
for  a  common  sense  solution  of  the  mystery.  Those 
who  had  all  their  lives  been  troubled  with  super- 
stitious fears,  and  were  in  danger  of  becoming  im- 
bued with  the  error  in  its  grosser  forms,  by  the  aid 
of  such  experiences  as  that  through  which  they  had 
recently  passed,  admitted  the  possibility  of  this.  If, 
therefore,  it  did  not  come  as  a  positive  revelation,  it 
was  a  relief  to  all  to  be  informed,  as  they  were  at 
an  early  hour,  that  the  initials  of  the  monster  haunt 
who  during  the  night  had  managed  to  reflect  as 
many  individualities  as  there  were  farm-houses  in 
the  district  were  K.  K.  K.  But  though  this  was  ac- 
cepted as  a  fact  by  all,  seeing  that  no  other  theory 
was  advanced,  yet  the  question  remained,  did  it  fur- 
nish a  satisfactory  solution  of  the  mystery,  or,  indeed, 
any  solution  whatever?  According  to  the  neighbor- 
hood version,  the  Ku-Klux  themselves  were  about 
as  intangible  examples  of  ghostliness  as  were  ever 
wrapped  in  loose-fitting  bombazine ;  and  if  so, 
wherein  was  gossip  made  the  wiser  ?  The  very  diffi- 
culty which  the  most  scholarly  person  would  ex- 
perience in  seeking  out  the  words  indexed  by  the 
famous  K(u)  K(lu)  K(lan),  was  enough  to  evince  to 
the  world  that  there  was  something  radically  wrong 
with  its  genealogy. 

On  the  morning  in  question,  the  chore  emissaries 
(boys  and  negroes)  of  the  farms  for  miles   around 


SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K.         4! 

had  assembled  at  the  neighborhood  mill,  awaiting 
their  turns  of  grinding,  and  when  rumor  brought 
the  subject  into  the  mill  council,  the  conflict  of 
opinion,  involving  original  arguments  advanced  and 
the  weight  of  authorities  adduced,  became  truly 
Brobdignagian.  The  night  raiders  had  been  seen 
by  some  of  the  party,  and  of  this  number  all  had 
crossed  the  boundaries  of  persuasion,  and  were  abso- 
lutely convinced  regarding  some  physical  (if  the 
term  maybe  used)  peculiarity  of  the  ghostly  phalanx. 
An  urchin  of  twelve  summers,  who  confessed  to 
sub  rosa  practices  while  the  paternal  premises  were 
being  raided,  but  nevertheless  claimed  to  get  one 
eye  squarely  on  them  as  they  rounded  a  hill,  one 
and  three-quarters  of  a  mile  distant,  was  convinced 
that  the  heads  of  the  rear  files  (front  not  visible) 
extended  above  the  tops  of  the  trees.  This  state- 
ment was  delivered  with  much  earnestness  of  manner, 
and  at  its  conclusion  all  the  saints  and  martyrs  in 
the  calendar  were  invited  to  give  it  their  indorsement. 

Peter  Burleson,  aged  fifteen,  who  saw  the  party 
ride  out  of  the  village  cemetery  (a  whim  of  the 
raiders,  inducing  the  belief  that  they  had  undergone 
a  partial  hibernation  amid  these  surroundings),  was 
able  to  state  something  as  to  its  numbers  in  keeping 
with,  the  above.  According  to  this  witness,  the 
weird  force  was  composed  of  two  battalions  and  a 
squadron,  or  about  two  thousand  men  and  horses, 
exclusive  of  a  section  of  artillery,  and  an  indefinite 

4* 


42  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

number  of  pack-mules.  The  horses  composing  the 
procession  were  deep  black  in  color,  emitted  col- 
umns of  smoke  and  flame  from  their  nostrils  (vide 
pictorial  papers),  and  varied  in  height  from  a  lamp- 
post to  a  telegraph  pole.  Of  the  raiders  themselves 
he  would  say  nothing  (under  the  impression,  doubt- 
less, that  the  theme  had  been  exhausted) ;  but  as  to 
the  "  rig  "  they  wore,  he  was  morally  certain  that  an 
inverted  churn  constituted  the  head-dress,  a  wagon 
sheet  of  mammoth  pattern  the  shoulder-garb,  and 
army  canteens  (probably  bisected  and  thus  made  to 
do  double  duty)  the  button  ornaments. 

Observing  something  at  this  point  in  the  counte- 
nances of  his  auditors  which  he  did  not  quite  like,  he 
availed  himself  of  their  knowledge  of  dictionary  su- 
perlatives in  an  exhortation  of  some  length,  and  con- 
cluded by  submitting  as  his  wish  that  he  be  "  hung, 
drawn,  and  quartered,"  and  such  further  disposition 
made  of  his  remains  as  the  skeptics  of  the*  crowd 
might  propose. 

It  is  really  a  subject  of  regret  with  the  writer  to  be 
compelled  to  state  that,  notwithstanding  the  remark- 
able strength  of  emphasis  employed  by  this  young 
man,  the  beautiful  consistency  of  his  narrative  (its 
parts  we  mean),  and  his  apparent  desire  to  anticipate 
and  provide  against  attacks  of  this  character,  that 
his  evidence  was  discredited  in  some  leading  points, 
if  not  altogether  overthrown,  by  the  testimony  of 
the  witness  who  followed.  This  was  Jerry  Stubbs, 
a  mill-boy  oracle,  and  a  youth  whose  antecedents 


SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K.         43 

were  otherwise  good.  His  first  onset  was  directed 
against  the  figures  of  his  predecessor,  which  were 
given  a  very  crooked  appearance  indeed,  when  placed 
against  the  fact  that  the  entire  raid  —  artillery,  bag- 
gage-wagons, horse,  foot,  and  buttons  —  had  been 
self-immured  in  the  paternal  horse-lot  (80  x  100  feet) 
of  the  said  Stubbs,  for  the  space  of  from  one  to 
twenty  minutes,  or  considerably  more,  or  a  great 
deal  less  —  could  not  be  exact  as  to  time.  He  had 
likewise  made  a  critical  examination  into  the  eques- 
trian belongings  of  the  raid,  and  the  horses  were  not 
black,  but  white  ;  and  finally,  he  felt  morally  assured, 
despite  the  confident  utterances  of  those  who  had 
preceded  him,  that  the  raiders  were  not  mounted, 
but  rode  in  covered  ambulances. 

When  the  witness  had  concluded,  there  was  a  gen- 
eral clamor  of  dissent ;  a  dozen  voices  were  heard 
attempting  to  speak  at  once ;  and  when,  by  courtesy 
of  the  hearers,  each  had  been  allotted  a  chance  at 
the  salient  features  of  his  narrative,  perhaps  no  one 
was  better  convinced  than  J.  S.  himself  that  he  had 
seen  none  of  the  occurrences  which  he  had  attempted 
to  relate. 

Oliver  (colored),  the  miller,  was,  perhaps,  a 'more 
reliable  witness  than  any  of  those  who  had. preceded 
him,  not  simply  because  he  had  greater  experience 
of  men  and  things,  but  his  opportunities  of  inform- 
ing himself  on  the  occasion  referred  to  had  been 
likewise  superior.  He  had  not  only  seen  the  raid- 
ers, but  had  actually  been  interviewed  by  them.  He 


44  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

slept  in  the  mill,  and  during  the  night  had  been 
aroused  from  his  sleep  —  could  not  tell  how,  nor  ex- 
actly when,  but  did  not  doubt  that  the  agency  was 
supernatural.  Proceeding  to  the  door,  he  saw  what 
he  supposed  to  be  "  sperrits,"  mounted  on  what  he 
thought  resembled  horses,  though  he  afterwards  sat- 
isfied himself  of  the  fallacy  of  the  latter  conclusion. 
He  could  not  take  observations  with  any  degree  of 
system,  however,  as  he  was  kept  busy  carrying  water 
from  the  tank  to  the  "  thirsty  sperrits,"  who  had 
made  this  call,  it  thus  seems,  with  a  selfish  end  in 
view.  One  of  the  party,  after  having  replenished 
his  boilers  to  the  tune  of  a  bucketful,  loosened  his 
belt  and  called  for  more,  remarking  aside  to  him, 
and  apparently  in  extenuation  of  the  act,  that  it  was 
the  first  he  had  quaffed  since  being  condemned  to 
death  by  fate  and  the  enemy's  bullets  at  Shiloh. 

He  confessed  to  having  become  somewhat  alarmed 
at  this ;  but  when,  a  moment  later,  another  individ- 
ual of  the  party,  mistaking  him  for  the  mill  owner, 
offered  sympathies  in  view  of  the  fact,  as  he  alleged, 
that  the  party  had  drank  the  creek  in  two,  at  a  point 
a  few  miles  nearer  its  source,  his  courage  failed  him, 
and  here  his  narrative  suddenly  breaks  off. 

This  witness  was  sharply  cross-questioned  by  the 
attorneys,  who  had  by  this  time  volunteered  on  both 
sides  of  the  controversy,  but  could  not  be  prevailed 
on  to  amend  or  otherwise  detract  from  the  material 
allegations  set  forth  in  his  examination.  Neither 
would  he  add  anything  thereto  —  a  healthy  sign 


SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K.         45 

which  the  defence  did  not  fail  to  appropriate  and 
magnify.  One  other  witness  remained  to  be  exam- 
ined, and  while  his  testimony  possessed  that  trait 
which  shone  so  conspicuously  in  the  allegations  of 
all  those  who  had  preceded  him,  viz.,  a  tendency  to 
found  his  own  airy  fabric  oft  the1  spot  he  had  ren- 
dered untenable  for  that  of  his  predecessor,  it  was 
in  the  main  reliable;  and  if,  as  Was  urged  against  it, 
its  facts  were  produced  at  a  late  hour,  it  was  alto- 
gether attributable  to  the  witness's  modesty,  and  the 
fact — which  was  now  elicited  for  the  first  time — that, 
notwithstanding  he  had  been  standing  on  his  head 
(metaphorically)  for  the  opportunity,  and  his  well- 
known  dexterity  in  wielding  syntactical  figures  of 
speech,  he  had  been  unable  to  explode  his  items  fast 
enough  to  anticipate  those  who  had  occupied  the  time 
This  boy,  Dick  Shuttail  (white),  age  not  known 
to  self  or  parents,  had  obtained  a  view  of  the  Kluxes 
from  the  airy  depths  of  the  family  rag-box,  situated 
in  the  rear  garret,  and  he  was,  therefore,  able  to 
speak  with  emphasis  on  certain  points  which  had 
been  barely  touched  upon  by  less-favored  observers. 
He  testified  that  the  raiders  were  mounted  on  ele- 
phants or  camels ;  could  not  distinguish  certainly, 
but  his  bias  led  him  to  say  the  former,  and  that 
these  beasts  were  branded  on  the  side  with  three 
corn-droppers  (K.  K.  K.),  or,  more  probably  (as  sug- 
gested by  a  hearer),  one  corn-dropper  three  times. 
The  raiders  were  veritable  spooks,  as,  in  the  place 
where  eyes,  mouth,  and  nose  should  have  been 


46  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

i  oundly  visible,  the  crows  had  supped,  and  instead 
or"  hair,  they  were  driven  to  a  subterfuge  which 
closely  resembled  an  inferior  article  of  mosquito  bar, 
worn,  however,  a  la  pompadour.  Their  saddle-bags, 
loaded,  most  probably,  with  munitions  of  war,  were 
borne  in  front  of  them,  and  their  uniforms  were 
ornamented  not  with  buttons,  but  spangles  of  bright 
hue  and  extraordinary  site. 

He  wa.c  going  on  to  relate  that  the  horses  they 

rode  Were  neither  black  nor  white,  but  br ,  when 

he  was  interrupted  by  hisses  from  his  audience, —  a 
circumstance  which  either  aided  memory,  or  sharp- 
ened his  introspective  organs,  for  almost  immedi- 
ately afterwards  he  hung  his  head,  and,  covering  by 
this  movement  a  very  sour  expression  of  counte- 
nance, retired  from  view. 

To  sa}-,  notwithstanding,  the  beautiful  start  he 
made,  and  the  high  dramatic  turn  he  was  giving  the 
events  of  his  narrative  up  to  the  fatal  moment  of 
collapse,  that  this  witness's  testimony  went  abso- 
lutely for  nothing,  and  that  his  explanation,  tendered 
at  some  length  and  supported  by  all  those  texts  of 
mill-boy  verity  which  had  been  successfully  adduced 
by  his  rivals  respectively,  was  rejected  by  an  indig- 
nant auditory,  is  to  anticipate  the  reader. 

When,  at  length,  the  mill-wheel  had  performed  its 
last  revolution,  and  the  mill  boys,  astride  their  sacks 
of  flour,  dispersed  to  their  homes,  it  was  with  the 
solemn  conviction  that  some  great  mystery  had 
dawned  upon  their  young  lives,  to  whose  after 


SUPERSTITIONS    REGARDING    K.  K.  K.         47 

developments  they  must  look  for  that  rational  sequel 
which  had  thus  far  been  denied  them.  Hundreds 
there  were  in  this  and  other  localities  of  the  South 
who,  while  they  rejected  the  idea  of  a  Ku-Klux 
phantom,  were  equally  slow  in  accepting  the  current 
theories  which  dissociated  them  and  their  plans 
from  all  preternatural  agencies. 

In  every  man's  breast  there  is  more  or  less  of  that 
mysterious  element  which,  under  proper  conditions 
of  time  and  place,  sees  ghosts  in  shadows,  and  hears 
them  in  the  faintest  echo.  These  attributes  (if  the 
term  be  admissible)  implanted  in  the  breast  of  the 
child  at  its  birth,  though  weeded  with  ever  so  care- 
ful a  hand  during  the  years  of  training,  still  retain 
some  tendril  hold,  which  no  process  of  metaphysics 
can  uproot,  and  which  in  the  future  years  send  out 
fruit-bearing  branches  that  make  and  unmake  human 
destiny.  Of  the  majority  of  human  kind,  it  may  be 
said  that  their  lives  and  possible  achievements  are 
covered  under  a  great  incubus  of  superstitious  thought 
and  feeling.  And  if,  at  some  late  period  of  exist- 
ence, they  take  the  tide  at  a  favorable  turn  and 
struggle  up  into  the  pure  surroundings  of  an  honest 
life,  the  effort  frequently  comes  too  late,  for  they  see 
in  this  change  only  some  postponed  dispensation  of 
luck  in  their  favor,  and  so  are  worse  bondmen  than 
before. 

Some  men  there  are  who  will  even  confess  to  you 
that  they  are  governed  by  these  strange  impulses  in 
what  they  term  the  "  trifling  details  of  life,"  but  as 


48  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

men  who  admit  "  trifling  details "  into  their  lives 
rarely  attain  to  a  higher  life  than  is  constituted  by 
the  sum  of  these,  their  admission  covers  a  greater 
scope  than  they  probably  intended.  Others,  equally 
candid,  adopt  a  different  mode  of  imparting  the 
same  confidence,  and  naively  tell  you  that  in  "  the 
more  important  concerns  of  life  "  they  are  indebted 
for  guidance  to  an  unseen  agency.  But  as  these 
men  wholly  mistake  the  meaning  of  the  adjective 
they  use,  adjusting  it  to  such  retail  considerations  as 
flow  from  their  daily  business  or  dwell  at  the  bot- 
tom of  their  post-prandial  cup,  we  must  take  their 
confession  to  include  both  froth  and  sediment,  the 
top  and  bottom  of  so  many  human  lives. 

After  having  devoted  much  thought  to  this  sub- 
ject, and  made  many  empirical  journeys  along  the 
route  which  leads  to  men's  confidences,  without 
being  suspected  of  any  such  deep-laid  treason  as 
that  which  we  here  confess  in  the  light  of  a  laudable 
undertaking,  it  is  our  candid  opinion  that  if  the  un- 
superstitious  of  earth  were  doomed  to  fall  by  the 
knife  of  some  avenging  Elijah,  the  bodies  of  the 
slain  would  no  more  constitute  a  Waterloo  than  fifty 
swallows  would  make  a  tolerable  month  of  July. 
So  that  when  we  say  this  Ku-Klux  breeze  blew 
consternation  to  many  timid  hearts,  both  young 
and  old,  great  and  small,  in  Crow  Hide,  we  only 
state  in  a  small  way  what  might  have  been  true, 
under  slightly  amended  conditions,  of  the  best  edu- 
cated of  the  oi  polloi  of  the  largest  cities  of  the 
greatest  republics. 


CHAPTER  V. 

K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS  WITH  THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE. 

A  Train  which  brought  Welcome  Passengers  —  Caucusing  in  the 
Open  Air  a  Dangerous  Proceeding — Correct  Surmises  —  An  Old 
Church,  Bequeathed  from  Generation  to  Generation,  and  Liable  to 
many  Uses  —  Brothers  and  Sisters  all  —  The  L.  L.  in  full  Bloom 

—  Storm  succeeded  by  a  Calm  —  Weird  Visitors  —  What    they 
left  behind  them — Dummy  Constructed  of  Cow-bones,  and  Hab- 
ited   in   full    Ku-Klux    Regalia  —  Height,   Ten   Feet  — Sudden 
Panic  — The  Rally  —  Still  in  Doubt  —  The  Chairman's  Stratagem 

—  How  it  did  n't  Work  —  Despondent   Leaguers   taught  to  Act 
for  Themselves  —  Finale. 

ON  the  day  preceding  the  evening  to  which  the 
fates  referred  the  K.  K.  K.  demonstration,  as 
aforesaid,  a  crowd  of  sable  politicians  might  have 
been  seen  lounging  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  vil- 
lage depot ;  and  a  few  moments  later,  as  the  train 
drew  up,  edging  their  way  through  the  crowd  to  the 
vicinity  of  two  small  dark  objects,  which,  though 
partially  concealed  by  the  crowd,  undoubtedly  con- 
stituted a  part  of  it,  as  they  were  seen  to  wave  above 
the  heads  of  the  tallest  what  could  hardly  have  been 
mistaken  for  anything  less  startlingly  suggestive  than 
two  glazed  carpet-bags. 

When  the  tumult  subsided,  and  the  crowd,  after 
5  D  49 


5O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

hovering  for  an  instant  in  the  neighborhood  of  this 
pantomime,  melted  away  as  depot  assemblages  are 
wont  to  do,  it  was  plainly  to  be  seen  that  the 
sable  electors  had  been  in  search  of  the  two  men 
with  the  glazed  carpet-bags,  and  the  two  men  with 
the  glazed  carpet-bags  in  search  of  the  sable  electors ; 
for  these  elements  of  the  crowd  had  now  amalga- 
mated (so  to  speak)  in  a  loving  embrace. 

The  ceremony  of  greeting,  as  witnessed  from  a 
distance  by  the.  villagers,  extended  to  a  thousand 
little  personal  liberties,  which  white  men  would  no 
more  tolerate  from  each  other  than  would  the  more 
dignified  of  the  beasts  of  the  forest.  And  when  its 
honey  had  been  extracted  by  the  parties  respectively, 
they  were  seen  to  place  their  upper  extremities  near 
together  in  consultation.  Some  observation  of 
amazing  pithiness  ran  the  gauntlet  of  woolly  crowns ; 
and  immediately  afterwards  a  burly  politician  with- 
drew from  the  caucus,  followed  by  all  eyes,  and  at 
a  point  not  far  distant  drew  a  diagram  on  the  plat- 
form with  his  cane.  Completing  the  demonstration, 
and  using  the  same  weapon,  he  smote  upon  the 
echoing  timbers  with  loud  emphasis,  and  immedi- 
ately the  olfactory  charm  was  renewed  around  the 
quadrilateral  wonder,  which,  having  been  viewed  by 
the  crowd  with  the  air  of  savants,  became  at  once 
the  subject  of  animated  discussion ;  and  then,  as 
suddenly,  of  perfect  agreement  and  harmonious 
handshaking. 

This  seemed  a  favorable  moment  for  dispersion ; 


K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS  WITH  LOYAL  LEAGUE.   51 

and,  indeed,  the  latter  movement  must  have  had 
partial  reference  thereto,  for  instantly  the  crowd 
developed  as  many  moral  agents  as  it  had  possessed 
caucusing  elements,  who,  adopting  their  several 
courses,  looked  neither  to  the  right  nor  left,  but 
pushed  for  the  interior  with  all  commendable  speed. 

This  cloud,  "  no  bigger  than  a  man's  hand,"  but 
nevertheless  boding  a  political  shower  of  no  mean 
consequence  to  dwellers  thereabouts,  had  been 
viewed,  as  we  have  anticipated,  by  a  number  of  per- 
sons, who,  in  their  anxiety  to  conceal  impressions, 
did  not  linger  in  the  vicinity  after  being  informed, 
by  a  glance,  of  its  ominous  character.  The  horse- 
man whom  we  have  seen  in  another  chapter  speed- 
ing through  the  neighborhood  on  courier  duty,  took 
his  cue  from  a  friendly  sun-glint  shot  from  the  glazed 
surface  of  one  of  the  carpet-bags ;  and,  indeed,  all 
the  details  of  preparation  culminating  in  the  forest 
meeting  of  the  weird  brotherhood,  which  we  have 
described,  and  those  events  connected  therewith, 
which  will  demand  our  attention  as  we  proceed, 
were  suspended  on  one  of  those  mere  accidents  of 
discovery  which  frequently  have  so  much  to  do  with 
the  fate  of  communities  in  times  of  political  disquiet. 

In  a  retired  forest  grove,  distant  from  any  settle- 
ment, was  a  dismantled  church  building,  which 
had  been  resigned  by  the  white  settlers  of  Crow 
Hide  to  the  slave  population  of  the  township  in  ante 
bellum  times,  and  the  title  to  which,  in  obedience 
to  a  policy  of  non-interference  on  the  part  of  lawful 


52  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

claimants,  had  survived  to  their  descendants  in  the 
golden  era  of  freedom.  This  building  performed 
innumerable  offices  for  the  foundlings  of  emancipa- 
tion in  those  parts  —  marriages,  funerals,  revival  meet- 
ings, society  gatherings,  etc.,  occupying  it  in  turn, 
and  even  once  in  a  while  the  dark-lantern  fiend 
invading  its  precincts.  From  its  sacred  desk,  bat- 
tered with  age  and  apostolic  blows,  and  warped  by 
the  sunbeams  of  three  generations,  the  venerable 
"  parson  "  was  wont  to  deliver  castigations  to  the 
erring  of  his  people  on  holy  days,  and  anon,  to 
receive  from  the  High  Tycoon  of  the  League  — 
enthroned  on  the  same  heights  —  the  most  bitter 
denunciations  of  his  political  shortcomings.  Here 
the  firstlings  of  the  flock  were  dedicated  to  the 
higher  life  of  Christian  rectitude  in  the  holy  rite  of 
baptism.  And  here,  too,  the  candidate  for  political 
preferment  was  made  to  feel  the  responsibilities  of 
the  step  by  being  dipped  seven  times  in  the  "  witches' 
cauldron "  ere  he  was  referred  for  those  special 
services  which  constitute  the  "  heated  gridiron,"  the 
most  beautifully  suggestive  of  the  ritualistic  con- 
ditions of  League  membership.  Here  sisters  and 
brothers,  giving  way  to  their  better  instincts,  har- 
monized on  meeting  days ;  and  here,  brothers  and 
sisters,  with  a  broader  display  of  those  principles 
which  govern  human  nature  —  if  with  less  con- 
sistency—  refused  to  harmonize  on  League  days. 
Here,  shouting  and  singing  constituted  the  mercu- 
rial forces  "jurin  de  roasen  'ere  and  kant  meetin' " 


K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS    WITH     LOYAL    LEAGUE.       53 

solstice,  and  here  (in  hoc  signo)  broken  heads  and 
scattered  fragments  of  benches  marked  the  political 
temperature,  when  the  League  machine  held  right 
on  its  course,  over  those  sensitive  members  of  the 
brotherhood,  which  it  might  not  be  proper  to  de 
nominate  "  sore  tails  "  without  this  circumlocution. 

It  was  on  this  spot,  and  amid  these  venerable  sur- 
roundings, contemporaneously  with  the  Ku-Klux 
demonstration  to  which  attention  has  been  directed, 
that  a  scene  was  enacted  which  fills  an  excruciating 
passage  in  our  narrative,  and  which  we  have  only 
been  debarred  from  presenting  to  the  reader  by  the 
obtrusion  of  details  which  could  not  be  excerpted 
from  the  latter  without  injuring  its  consistency. 

To  say  that  the  L.  L.  was  in  full  bloom,  and 
moving  unflinchingly  forward  in  the  discharge  of 
the  numerous  obligations  which  devolved  upon  it  as 
a  member  of  society,  would  be  to  depose  facts  that 
will  be  brought  nearer  to  the  comprehension  of  the 
reader,  if  we  explain  that  three  of  its  ablest-(bodied) 
speakers  were  coquetting  for  the  favors  of  the  chair, 
and  denouncing  each  other  in  the  most  incendiary 
language  —  despite  the  remonstrance  of  the  chair  — 
in  the  same  breath ;  that  the  speaker  was  hammer- 
ing on  his  desk  with  a  vehemence  born  of  despair, 
and  occasionally  interlarding  this  performance  with 
scowls  that  would  have  made  his  fortune  in  the  lion- 
taming  business ;  that  the  house  had  risen  to  its  feet 
for  the  third  time  in  a  solid  vote  of  remonstrance  ; 
and,  finally,  that  two  other  members  had  felt  them- 


54  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

selves  called  upon  to  explain  to  the  rebellious  trio 
aforesaid  the  treasonable  quality  of  their  offence,  the 
positive  madness  of  their  course,  and,  when  called  to 
order  by  the  speaker,  had  flown  in  the  face  of  that 
functionary  with  some  very  defiant  language  regard- 
ing their  rights  as  citizens  of  a  free  country. 

Maddened  by  a  sense  of  the  cold-blooded  con- 
tempt aimed  at  him  through  this  repeated  disregard 
of  his  most  cherished  prerogative,  the  speaker  (a 
white  man)  arose  to  his  feet,  and  was  in  the  act  of 
aiming  an  inkstand  at  the  pyramid  of  wool  which 
served  one  of  the  malefactors  the  double  purpose 
of  a  crown  of  glory  and  emblem  of  loyalty,  when, 
lo !  there  was  a  crash,  a  mighty  upheaval  of  moral 
forces,  so  to  speak,  a  thunderous  resurge  of  the 
waves  of  faction,  and  presto  !  the  scene  changes. 

Now  the  echoes  have  gone  to  rest,  and  a  palpable 
hush  reigns  over  the  assembly.  Instead  of  those 
savage  principles  —  war  and  rebellion  —  how  em- 
phatic the  terms  of  contrast ;  meek-eyed  peace  sits 
enthroned  on  every  brow.  What  means  that  half- 
suppressed  sigh,  that  groan  smothered  in  partu- 
rition ?  But  hold !  "  'Sdeath  !  "  A  creeping  dread 
moves  along  the  serried  benches,  laying  its  hand 
on  the  pulse-beat,  invading  the  pants'  legs,  and 
nestling  close  to  the  seat  of  life  of  the  tableaux 
vivantes  who  await  destiny  (horrible  reflection)  on 
the  ragged  edge  of  "  unfinished  business."  Where 
late  stood  those  mentors  of  the  scene  —  shaken 
by  the  impulse  of  "  thoughts  that  breathe,"  and 


K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS  WITH  LOYAL  LEAGUE.   55 

bandying  hot  invectives  with  unsparing  wrath  —  how 
changed,  alas !  the  forms  of  cringing  suppliants 
whose  counterparts  might  have  been  spaded  from 
the  Theban  catacombs  any  day  for  a  thousand  years. 
At  yonder  extremity  of  the  building,  surrounded  by 
the  insignia  of  more  than  despotic  rule,  where  towered 
the  "  thunderer  of  the  scene,"  transfixed  in  articulo 
jactanti,  lol  an  Ajax  defying  the  lightning, 

And  now  what  weird  forms  from  the  "  night's  Plu- 
tonian shore"  are  those  which,  joined  in  close  proces- 
sion, invade  the  folding-doors,  and  with  thunderous 
steps  —  matched  in  echo  —  storm  down  the  quaking 
aisles?  Doomed  spirits,  or  ministers  of  heaven's 
delayed  vengeance,  it  matters  little  ;  and  'neath  such  a 
materialized  spell  from  the  echoless  lands,  who  could 
doubt,  or  doubting,  live?  On  they  come,  looking 
neither  to  the  right  nor  left,  neither  mending  their 
gait  nor  halting,  until  they  have  plunged  in  medias 
res,  when,  with  a  scarcely  perceptible  pause  —  those 
ponderous  boot-heels,  describing  a  half  circle,  smite 
the  puncheon  floor  —  every  limb  is  adjusted  to  the 
most  graceful  of  company  manoeuvres ;  and  turning 
on  their  march,  they  move  with  the  same  echoing 
tread  down  the  aisles,  out  at  the  folding-doors  and 
into  the  darkness  —  away  —  away. 

But  stop,  ha !  that  sigh  of  relief  springing  to  a 
hundred  throats  was  premature  —  the  fiend  hath  but 
dismissed  his  attendants,  himself  remains.  Stand- 
ing ten  feet  in  his  boots,  and  clad  in  full  Ku-Klux 
regalia  (described  in  a  previous  chapter),  an  embodi- 


56  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

ment  of  rank  ghostliness,  he  now  occupied  the  centre 
of  the  building,  and  if  anything  was  wanting  to  that 
"  ghastly,  grim,  ungainly  "  ideal,  which  those  who 
placed  it  there  were  seeking  to  embody,  it  was  sup- 
plied in  the  most  threatening  of  tragic  postures,  and 
a  gesture  whose  very  fixedness  was  not  its  least  elo- 
quent feature.  This  latter  described  a  horizontal 
line  from  the  shoulder  to  the  finger-tips,  and,  hor- 
ribile  dictu,  the  index -finger  was  pointed  squarely 
at  the  anatomy  of  the  august  personage  who  was 
—  had  been,  we  should  say  —  presiding  over  the  de- 
liberations of  the  body.  For  about  twenty  seconds 
that  individual  had  been  viewing  the  landscape  from 
the  de  mortids  standpoint ;  but  being  recalled  to  ani- 
mation by  the  excessive  personality  of  this  proceed- 
ing, he  executed  three  handslings  and  a  somersault, 
and  was  at  rest  for  the  time  being  in  a  pile  of  super- 
annuated furniture  at  the  far  end  of  the  hall.  Then 
there  was  a  rush  from  the  "third  person"  element, 
who  could  but  feel  that  the  grammatical  situation 
was  getting  momentarily  worse.  Benches  and  desks 
were  overturned  ;  stoves  and  stove  furniture  came 
tumbling  about  their  heads ;  a  pillar,  swept  from  its 
moorings  by  the  human  wave,  fell  with  a  boom  like 
cannon  at  sea,  and,  hark !  louder  still,  and  rising 
above  the  din,  a  human  voice  hoarsely  bawling, 
"  Take  him  out !  " 

Who  is  there  that  has  not  witnessed  examples 
of  fell  panic  converted  into  a  gallant  defence,  or 
brave  onset,  by  the  most  seemingly  trivial  occur- 


K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS    WITH    LOYAL    LEAGUE.       57 

rence  ?  It  was  so  on  the  present  occasion.  A 
section  of  stove-pipe  being  projected  against  the 
uplifted  arm  of  the  ghostly  personage,  —  who  had, 
perhaps,  contributed  more  than-  any  other  being 
to  the  tumult  by  which  he  was  surrounded,  —  that 
member  fell  to  the  floor  with  a  crash,  and  this 
movement  having  been  witnessed  by  one  of  the 
refugees,  his  emotions  took  that  form  of  expression 
which  perhaps  was  best  adapted  to  arrest  the  panic, 
if  not  to  restore  confidence. 

The  flying  Leaguers  turning  their  heads  to  dis- 
cover the  author  of  this  seeming  sacrilege,  beheld, 
instead,  the  accident  which  inspired  it,  and  instantly 
faced  about  with  changed  resolution.  The  individual 
who  first  sounded  the  alarm,  though,  evidently,  still 
frightened  by  the  tones  of  his  voice,  repeated  it  in 
the  same  words  ;  and  this  second  reminder  was-  fol- 
lowed by  a  feeble  rally,  directed  at  the  rear  of  the 
speaker's  body.  While  this  manoeuvre  was  in  course 
of  evolution,  a  voice  from  the  rear  files  shouted, 
"  Forward  !  "  but  the  effect  of  the  command  was  so 
visible  in  widening  the  distance  between  the  assault- 
ing column  and  the  object  of  attack,  that  a  dead 
silence  fell  on  the  assembly,  and,  for  the  space  of 
several  minutes,  each  was  busy  for  himself  examin- 
ing the  salient  points  of  the  enemy's  position. 

The  gallant  chairman  having  recovered  his  legs 
by  this  time,  and  seeing,  by  the  spasmodic  move- 
ment in  the  crowd,  answering  to  that  muscular  feat, 
that  something  was  expected  of  him,  proceeded  in- 


58  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

stantly  to  measures.  Wearing  a  severe  countenance, 
he  called  the  house  to  order,  and,  looking  around 
upon  the  assembly,  announced  a  committee  of  five 
(greatly  to  the  relief  of  the  remaining  threescore), 
whose  duty  it  should  be  to  rid  the  camp  of  the  fell 
intruder.  Why  this  had  not  been  thought  of  before 
is  one  of  the  unsolved  conundrums,  and  why  it  ever 
was  thought  of,  the  committee  aforesaid  are  not  yet 
prepared  with  a  reply.  Neither  is  there  any  good 
reason  for  the  state  of  things  which  immediately  fol- 
lowed, as  a  dead  calm  fell  upon  the  assembly,  which 
probably  would  not  have  been  disturbed  until  this 
moment,  if  another  of  those  fortunate  occurrences, 
which  seemed  made  to  order  for  the  occasion,  had 
not  reached  the  tide  of  League  affairs  at  its  swell. 

Whether  the  machine  was  an  eight-day  affair,  and 
had  accomplished  the  moments  of  its  destiny,  or 
simply  a  piece  of  mechanism  poorly  planned,  we 
are  quite  unable  to  say.  But  at  the  moment  when 
the  Quaker  period  of  the  aforesaid  conference  had 
reached  its  most  eloquent  passage,  a  cracking  sound 
was  heard  in  the  vicinity  of  his  ghostship,  followed 
by  a  rattling  explosion,  whose  fussiness  could  hardly 
be  resembled  to  anything  but  an  avalanche  of  dry 
bones  hurled  from  some  upper  region ;  and,  in- 
stantly, in  obedience  to  this  warning,  a  desire  to  for- 
sake present  surroundings  for  some  less  melancholy 
region  took  the  form  of  an  inspiration  in  the  breast 
of  each  "  politishun."  In  what  way  this  manoeuvre 
would  have  been  executed,  if  the  chairman  had  per- 


K.  K.  K.  DEALINGS  WITH    LOYAL    LEAGUE.       59 

sisted  in  the  high-tragedy  role  he  had  assigned  him- 
self, by  remaining  to  announce  some  plan  of  retreat, 
is  another  mystery  connected  with  this  event,  with 
which  we  are  not  concerned  beyond  the  bare  an- 
nouncement. But  it  is  certain  that  that  individual, 
taking  time  by  the  forelock,  had  made  a  successful 
advance  on  the  rear  window,  carrying  the  sash  with 
him,  and  that  his  followers  were  engaged  in  a  very 
animated  game  of  leap-frog,  directed  towards  sim- 
ilar advantages  at  other  angles  of  the  building.  In 
less  time  than  is  consumed  by  a  record  of  the  event, 
the  doors  were  blocked  with  a  mass  of  rolling,  tum- 
bling, somersaulting  Leaguers.  The  windows  had 
their  full  quota  of  struggling,  sweating  passengers. 
A  large  crack  in  the  wall  was  in  labor  with  three 
burly  forms,  and  yet  a  score  or  more  were  unaccom- 
modated, and,  with  heads  ducked,  were  hurling  them- 
selves endwise  against  the  retreating  columns,  with 
an  energy  which  evinced  the  strong  determination 
of  each  to  avoid  the  fate  of  that  hindmost  unfortu- 
nate, whom  Satan,  from  time  immemorial,  has  ex- 
acted for  toll. 

But,  though  some  confusion  waited  upon  this  ex- 
odus from  the  neighborhood  of  the  big  haunt,  it  was 
conducted  with  greater  dispatch  than  had  character- 
ized any  similar  movement  in  the  history  of  the 
rickety  old  building,  and  soon  the  boss  straggler, 
having  eluded  the  individual  on  two  sticks  by  pig- 
eon-winging it  through  a  hole  in  the  roof,  rolled 
upon  the  green  sward  beneath  with  a  grunt  of  over- 
powering relief. 


6O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

When  the  building  was  completely  deserted,  and 
the  swallows,  half  in  doubt,  had  returned  to  their 
perch  under  its  eaves,  a  sound,  which  could  scarcely 
have  been  mistaken  for  aught  but  the  hooting  of  an 
owl,  broke  the  stillness  of  the  neighboring  forest, 
and  was  quickly  replied  to  at  the  distance  of  perhaps 
a  furlong  in  the  opposite  direction.  The  echoes 
awakened  by  these  signals  were  still  busy  at  hide- 
and-seek  with  the  shadows  in  the  old  building,  when 
two  forms,  clad  in  long  robes  and  wearing  high- 
peaked  caps,  crossed  the  plateau  to  its  threshold, 
and  giving  way  to  an  involuntary  chuckle  as  they 
gazed  first  upon  the  wrecked  surroundings,  passed 
to  its  inner  precincts.  Perhaps  a  full  minute  elapsed 
before  they  reappeared  at  the  entrance  way,  and, 
being  joined  here  by  a  companion  with  two  led 
horses,  they  placed  their  bags  of  cow-bones  on  the 
latter,  and,  mounting,  galloped  swiftly  into  the  dark- 
ness. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

GHOST  FEATURE  OF  THE  MOVEMENT.       ITS    PHILOSOPHY. 

Contrasted  Views  of  the  Organization  inspired  by  its  Dealings  with 
the  Public  —  Its  Political  Bearing  —  Its  Objects  not.deemed  Harmful 
to  Society  —  New  England  Transcendentalists,  and  the  Ponderous 
Science  which  they  put  before  the  World  under  the  Title  of  "  Ne- 
gropholisni  " —  The  Colored  Man  in  the  South  —  Kindly  Feeling  for 
the  Race  cherished  by  Native  Southerners  —  Households  Presided 
over  by  Colored  Matrons  —  Superstitious  Tendencies  of  Cufifey  — 
One  of  the  Conditions  of  his  Tropical  Nativity  —  Heathenish  Lapses 
—  His  Ideas  about  "  Ghosts, "  and  the  Realm  which  they  Inhabit  — 
Interviewing  the  former  —  Spook  Kinsfolk  —  He  holds  them  in  the 
highest  Veneration  —  The  ideal  "  Uncle  Tom's  Cabin  "  —Wherein 
it  was  a  Failure  —  The  "  Infantile  Sex"  and  their  Greed  for  Ghost- 
lore  —  Fighting  their  way  through  Legions  of  Shadowy  Foes  to  their 
"  Curtained  Rest"  — Young  Professors  of  the  Spiritual  Science  — 
Painful  Reminiscences  —  Use  to  which  the  Aged  Patriarch,  or  Bel- 
dam, as  the  Case  might  be,  put  their  Prerogative — Talent  for  relating 
Ghost  Stories  —  The  Young  White  Men  of  the  South  trained  up  in 
this  School  —  Insight  into  Negro  Character  obtained  therefrom  — 
K.  K.  K.  Affectation  of  the  Supernatural  based  upon  the  latter. 

THE  two  preceding  chapters  may  occur  to  those 
who  were  not  informed  of  the  nature  and  de- 
gree of  the  excitement  which  waited  upon  the  move- 
ments of  these  secret  organizations  in  obscure  and 
uninformed  neighborhoods,  and  among  the  negroes 
in  various  localities,  as  partaking  of  the  hypercritical 

in  narrative.     But  those  who,  by  reason  of  residence 
6  61 


62  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

or  other  accident,  were  made  conversant  with  such 
scenes  almost  every  week  in  the  year,  and  who  were 
not  unfrequently  drawn  away  from  the  contemplation 
of  social  misdemeanors  or  crimes  of  the  most  seri- 
ous import  to  split  their  sides  over  some  ludicrous 
faux  pas,  or  intended  farce,  of  the  perpetrators,  will 
not  be  slow  to  discover  their  basis  of  fact,  nor  accord 
to  the  author  that  honesty  of  purpose  to  which  he 
lays  claim  in  the  conduct  of  these  pages.  It  was 
stated  in  a  previous  chapter  that  the  secret  organ- 
ization known  as  the  Ku  Klux  Klan  was  a.  political 
movement  intended  to  offset  what  was  known  as  the 
Loyal  League,  an  order  whose  draft  was  taken  from 
the  negro  population,  but  which  was  controlled  by, 
and  in  the  interest  of,  a  class  of  political  harpies 
known  as  carpet-baggers.  The  latter  element,  by 
means  of  this  political  engine,  dominated  the  poli- 
tics of  the  South  for  a  period  of  more  than  five  years, 
and  while  its  power  may  not  have  been  broken  by 
the  influences  set  in  motion  by  the  counter  move- 
ment, and  though  the  latter  must  be  condemned  on 
general  principles,  yet  among  the  people  where  it 
had  its  origin,  and  stripped  of  the  analogies  which 
the  imaginations  of  fault-finders  would  be  apt  to 
supply,  its  objects  were  not  deemed  harmful  to  so- 
ciety. As  to  its  wisdom,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
it  was  aimed  at  the  most  salient  of  the  enemy's  weak 
points. 

In  treating  this  proposition,  we  shall  seek  to  avoid 
that  ponderous  science  which  that  branch  of  trans- 


GHOST    FEATURE    OF    THE    MOVEMENT.       63 

cendentalists  who  acknowledge  Mr.  Wendell  Phillips 
as  their  leader  put  before  the  world  under  the  title  of 
Negropholism,  and  deal  with  the  article  as  we  find 
it — so  much  on  the  greasy  surface  of  the  native  that 
the  temptation  of  the  carpet-bagger  to  use  it  for  base 
ends  must  be  regarded  an  uncommon  one. 

[The  people  of  the  South,  young  and  old,  who  were 
brought  up  under  that  social  regimen  which  embodied 
the  negro  as  a  prominent  and  necessary  feature,  will 
appreciate  the  feelings  of  the  writer  when  he  states 
that  he  has  not,  and  never  can  have,  any  feeling  of 
enmity  towards  this  race.  Some  of  the  tenderest 
passages  in  his  heart  history  he  is  glad  to  refer  to 
that  period  when  negroes  were  not  only  admitted  en 
famille  among  the  whites,  but  in  innumerable  in- 
stances given  absolute  control  over  the  household 
affairs  of  their  masters.  He  numbers  among  his 
cultured  acquaintance  scores  of  young  men  and  maid- 
ens who  never  knew  any  other  parentage,  and  who 
can  never  admit  a  dearer  relation  than  their  adopted 
paternity.  The  negroes,  if  vicious  and  mean,  owe  it 
to  that  cruel  divorcement  from  the  Southern  social 
plan  effected  by  their  political  leaders,  and  to  the 
life  of  vagabondage  to  which  they  are  doomed  under 
the  new  system ;  they  are  not  more  so  by  nature 
than  other  men.  If,  therefore,  the  writer  is  tempt- 
ed to  speak  of  their  weaknesses,  it  is  in  no  irrever- 
enti,al  sense,  and  with  a  laudable  object  in  view,  to 
which  this  policy  will  be  seen  to  be  strictly  antece- 
dent] 


64  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

That  the  negro  is  by  nature  grossly  superstitious, 
no  one  who  has  had  even  tolerable  means  of  in- 
formation will  deny.  In  another  chapter  we  have 
prevised  something  on  general  principles  concern- 
ing the  superstition  of  mankind,  but  the  compari- 
son to  be  drawn  between  the  negro  and  all  other 
branches  of  the  Adamic  tree,  as  to  this  particular 
fruitage,  is  so  unequal,  that  we  shall  ask  the  reader 
to  accept  the  former  as  a  very  modified  presentation 
of  a  theory  that  was  made  to  order  for  the  crown  of 
Cuffey.  And  however  much  this  may  be  untrue 
with  regard  to  other  animals,  this  faculty  of  the 
individual  under  discussion  has  nothing  whatever  to 
do  with  his  aesthetical  being.  It  does  not  in  any 
sense  enlist  that  high  poetic  principle  which  is 
one  of  the  conditions  of  his  tropical  nativity.  Left 
to  himself,  with  all  the  appliances  of  civilization 
and  the  encouragement  of  its  examples  about  him, 
his  superstition  will  subject  him,  in  the  short  space 
of  a  twelvemonth,  to  heathenish  lapses  which  the 
weak-headed  Mongolian,  under  the  same  outward 
conditions,  has  resisted  for  a  period  of  six  thousand 
years.  Voudooism  is,  perhaps,  the  weakest  form 
of  heathen  worship  which  this  moral  condition  has 
developed,  and,  despite  the  few  occasions  admitted 
by  the  structure  of  our  laws,  it  is  strictly  a  native 
product.  Those  who  contend  that  it  is  an  African 
transplant,  or  borrowed  from  the  congeners  of  the 
race  on  those  shores,  are  surely  not  guided  by  con- 
victions derived  from  an  examination  into  its  phi- 


GHOST    FEATURE    OF    THE    MOVEMENT.      65 

losophy.  But  it  is  a  very  radical  form  of  savagism 
in  worship,  including  human  sacrifices  among  its 
rites,  and  as  we  have  anticipated  that  it  had  its 
birth  in  the  rice-  and  cotton-fields  of  the  South, 
further  remark  on  this  division  of  the  argument  is 
deemed  unnecessary. 

In  contrast  with  other  races  of  beings,  the  world 
of  shadows  is  to  the  imagination  of  the  black  man 
a  thing  of  gloom.  The  existences  who  people  this 
realm  are  hobgoblins,  and  the  standard  of  the  latter 
a  mild  abridgment  of  the  arch-fiend.  He,  neverthe- 
less, holds  them  in  the  highest  veneration,  and  is 
prepared  to  accept  their  revelations  concerning  him- 
self, and  indeed  all  other  subjects  of  mundane  phi- 
losophy, as  oracular.  He  even  holds  familiar  con- 
verse with  them — when  an  interview  can  be  contrived 
without  endangering  those  barriers  of  etiquette  which 
preserve  to  either  a  fair  start  in  a  foot-race  —  and  cal- 
culates with  tolerable  accuracy  that  the  churchyard 
spawn  who  affect  this  characterization  are  counter- 
feits. On  the  latter  subject  he  has  doubts,  however, 
which  on  occasion  might  be  turned  to  his  disadvan- 
tage. 

Whether  it  is  affectation  with  him,  or  a  kind  of 
prescience  with  which  he  is  gifted  in  view  of  his 
moral  structure,  we  do  not  pretend  to  decide ;  but 
he  boasts  a  knowledge  of  the  private  affairs  of  his 
spook  kinsfolk  (they  are  invariably  uncles,  aunts, 
grand  relations,  etc.)  which  would  be  considered 
sacrilege  in  another  being.  If  he  deems  you  worthy 
6*  E 


66  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

of  such  confidence,  he  will  describe  to  you  the 
ghostly  raiment  they  wear,  diversified  in  other  par- 
ticulars, but  always  sombre-hued,  and  in  no  recorded 
instance  cut  bias.  He  is  rarely  at  fault  in  assigning 
the  period  of  antiquity  from  which  they  date,  and  if 
opportunity  served,  could  lead  you  to  the  exact  spot 
where  their  archaeological  remains  "  smell  sweet." 
He  can  give,  with  that  emphasis  of  detail  which 
grows  out  of  perfect  familiarity  with  his  subject, 
their  occupations  —  ranging  from  yacht-building, 
horse-culture,  and  other  of  the  fine  arts,  all  the  way 
down  to  book-making.  And  finally,  if  pressed  for 
information,  can  state  some  astonishing  facts  with 
regard  to  their  phrenological  development.  With 
him  these  essences  are  always  evil  spirits,  and 
though  he  views  them  in  the  constant  performance 
of  deeds  that  would  quickly  promote  them  to  the 
hangman's  offices  if  enterprised  in  the  flesh,  yet  his 
philosophy  so  confounds  the  means  and  extremes 
relating  to  the  transaction,  that  he  can  see  no  way 
out  of  the  difficulty  but  to  respect  the  latter  as  pro- 
ceeding from  the  former. 

Though  they  cherish  a  causeless  animosity  against 
himself  and  his  kind,  and  war  on  the  latter  with 
a  chronic  wastefulness  of  the  vital  spark,  which 
could  only  proceed  from  a  want  of  appreciation  of 
this  blessing  inseparable  from  their  standpoint,  yet 
he  cannot  go  behind  his  apotheosis  to  find  fault  with 
the  system  of  government  upon  which  it  proceeds. 
In  fact,  though  he  avoids  the  "  ghoul-haunted  "  pre- 


GHOST  FEATURE  OF  THE  MOVEMENT.   6? 

cincts  with  which  his  neighborhood  abounds,  and 
trembles  when  he  recites  the  deeds  of  valor  per- 
formed by  some  warlike  example  against  fleshly 
hosts,  yet  when  he  has  taken  his  distance,  and  duly 
calculated  the  chances  in  his  favor,  he  delights, 
above  all  things,  to  gather  about  himself  the  phi- 
losophic weaklings  of  his  race,  and,  having  launched 
upon  his  theme,  observe  the  absolute  failure  of  the 
kink  in  the  woolly  crown  of  each  as  a  thing  to  be 
depended  on  in  time  of  emergency. 

The  ideal  ".Uncle  Tom's  Cabin"  had  very  little 
of  the  ghost  element  in  its  construction.  In  this 
respect,  as  in  some  others,  it  was  a  miserable  failure. 
The  real  structure  was  a  ghost's  palace,  where  they 
came  and  went  at  pleasure,  and  not  unfrequently 
took  up  their  abode.  To  this  habitation,  in  ante 
bellum  times,  presided  over  by  Uncle  Dick  or  Aunt 
Rachel,  it  mattered  little  —  for  both  were  magicians 
of  no  mean  order  —  the  juveniles  of  both  races 
flocked  after  nightfall  for  supplies  of  ghost-lore ;  and 
to  say  that  they  were  accommodated  will  but  faintly 
describe,  we  fear,  that  anguished  state  of  soul  (what 
Southern  boy  or  man  does  not  drop  a  tear  on  this 
reminiscence?)  with  which,  a  few  hours  later,  they 
passed  out  into  the  darkness  and  fought  their  way 
through  legions  of  shadowy  foes  to  their  "  curtained 
rest." 

These  ghost  stories,  which  always  resulted  dis- 
astrously for  flesh  and  blood,  and  had  a  church- 
yard twang  about  them  that  came  with  peculiar 
relish  to  the  youngster  under  a  strong  glare  of 


68  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

candle-  or  fire  light,  were  the  very  apple-pie  of 
farm-life  to  the  "  infantile  sex,"  despite  the  after- 
piece, which,  after  all,  was  a  contingency  that  might 
be  disposed  of  at  will  by  the  philanthropic  source 
of  the  mischief.  How  often  have  we  observed  a 
circle  of  these  young  professors  of  the  spiritual 
science  defiantly  "lean  back"  in  their  proclivities 
when  the  crooning  narration  began,  and  the  great 
fireplace  sent  out  effulgent  rays,  suddenly  alter  their 
manner  for  one  of  marked  deference  as  the  ghost- 
character  came  on  with  stately  tread  and  took  its 
place  in  the  forefront  of  thrilling'  reminiscence; 
and  then,  as  the  rays  of  firelight  went  to  sleep  with 
the  embers  one  by  one,  hitch  up  their  seats  within 
the  margin  that  remained,  getting  nearer  by  degrees, 
until  at  length,  as  the  story  grew  towards  its  denoue- 
ment and  the  fire  hung  over  its  ashy  tomb,  crowd- 
ing from  all  quarters,  they  threatened  to  overturn 
the  narrator  —  so  great  was  the  terror  inspired  by 
the  shadows  which  lay  behind  them. 

But  to  no  one  had  these  performances  such  con- 
stant and  deep  relish  as  the  aged  patriarch  or  bel- 
dam, as  the  case  might  be,  who  was  elevated  by  their 
young  suffragans  to  the  post  of  mentor  for  the  time 
being.  They  revelled  in  this  employment,  first,  be- 
cause it  suited  their  talents ;  and  second,  because  it  was 
perfectly  adapted  to  their  emotional  nature.  An  Afri- 
can, moreover,  is  gratified  beyond  expression  by  the 
knowledge  that  he  possesses  authority,  no  matter 
how  brief  or  weak  in  extent,  which  may  be  exer- 


GHOST    FEATURE    OF    THE    MOVEMENT.      69 

cised  over  his  fellows ;  and  there  is  not,  we  believe, 
a  living  party  to  such  a  bequest  of  social  right  and 
liberty  over  conscience  as  that  to  which  we  have 
referred,  who  was  not  a  sufferer  under  the  arrange- 
ment to  an  extent  which  he  rarely  admits  to  stranger 
confidences.  But  this  improvement  of  the  occasion 
which  came  to  him  on  the  part  of  the  fiction-vender 
was  not  always  done  in  mere  wantonness.  Not  un- 
frequently  the  result  achieved  was  without  design, 
and  when  the  contrary  was  true,  the  design  was 
quite  an  intelligent  one.  When  he  acted  intelli- 
gently, the  object  kept  in  view  was  to  gain  such  an 
ascendency  over  the  minds  of  his  young  auditory 
that  he  might  reap  either  present  benefits,  or  call  it 
up  to  advantage  in  the  future ;  and  when  we  reflect 
that  his  audiences  were  largely  composed  of  his 
young  masters  and  mistresses,  whose  influence  was 
great  at  head-quarters,  and  who  would  one  day  suc- 
ceed to  the  estate,  the  wisdom  of  his  conclusions 
must  be  conceded. 

Trained  up  in  this  school,  and  knowing  by  their 
later  experience  of  men  the  precise  extent  to  which 
the  plantation  darkey  was  controlled  by  the  super- 
stitious notions  which  he  disseminated  (for  he  was 
no  hypocrite),  the  young  white  men  of  the  South 
were  at  no  loss  in  adopting  countervailing  forces 
when  the  Loyal  League  storm  burst  upon  the  country. 
The  superstition  of  the  negro  was  not  a  weakness, 
but  a  ruling  characteristic ;  and  at  this  central  idea 
of  his  being  the  Ku-Klux  movement  was  directed. 


7<D  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

Being  thus  addressed  to  his  fears,  it  will  be  seen,  by 
any  one  wishing  information  on  the  subject,  that  the 
latter  was  designed  to  whip  him  into  obedience  to 
what  was  then  thought,  but  is  now  known,  to  be  the 
ruling  element  in  Southern  politics.  We  do  not 
assert  that  it  was  a  just  expedient;  we  cannot  be- 
lieve, in  view  of  later  developments  in  our  local 
politics,  that  it  was  a  wise  one  ;  but  its  transactions 
have  passed  into  history,  and  it  is  with  them  that 
we  are  concerned. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

DETAILS   OF   ORGANIZATION. 

A  Band  of  Regulators  whose  Force  at  this  time  numbered  a  Half 
Million  well-organized  and  perfectly  Drilled  Men — Who  composed 
its  Draft — Considerations  which  recommended  it  to  the  Better 
Classes  of  Society  —  Its  Haunts — Oath-bound  Covenant,  and  Pen- 
alties attached — Panoply  of  Lower  Regions — Its  Raiding  Rendez- 
vous—  Galloping  forth  to  Predestined  Conquest  —  It  proceeded 
under  a  rigid  Constitutional  System  —  Territorial  Subdivisions  — 
Empire  —  Realm  —  Province  —  Den  —  Grand  Wizard  and  his 
Cabinet  —  Grand  Giant  —  The  Commander  of  a  Den  —  Grand 
Cyclops  —  Night-Hawks,  etc.  —  Recruiting  Agents — How  Mem- 
bers were  Initiated  —  Proposed  Initiates  might  Retire  if  Displeased 
with  the  Conditions  of  Membership  —  How  far  the  Klan  was 
"  Rebel"  in  its  Draft  —  Members  of  State  Legislatures,  Congress- 
men, and  Governors  of  States,  took  its  Vows  upon  them  —  Its 
Political  Suffrages  —  Compelling  Ignorant  Colored  Men  to  relin- 
quish the  Franchise  —  K.  fc.  K.  Placards — Empty  Coffins  contain- 
ing Ukase  of  Banishment  Carted  to  the  Doors  of  Obnoxious  White 
Citizens  —  Its  Ideas  of  Social  Decorum. 

THE  mystic  order  of  K.  K.  K.  had  scarcely 
emerged  from  its  swaddling-clothes,  as  things 
go  in  the  material  universe,  ere  it  had  developed 
into  a  giant  that  filled  the  Southern  zodiac,  as  effec- 
tually as  the  almanac  dummy  comprehends  in  his 
physical  outlines  the  cardinal  points  of  the  seasons. 
Moving  from  county  to  county,  and  from  one  State 


72  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

to  another,  it  invaded  the  most  remote  communities 
—  until  within  three  months  from  the  time  that  the 
slogan  call  had  been  sounded  on  the  eastern  shore 
of  the  Mississippi,  its  bannerets  formed  a  cordon 
around  the  Gulf  and  Atlantic  coasts,  and  its  domin- 
ion over  the  Trans-Mississippi  country  was  undis- 
puted. A  band  of  regulators,  whose  force  at  this 
time  numbered  a  half  million  well-organized  and 
perfectly  drilled  men,  it  aimed  at  nothing  less  than 
the  subjection  of  the  pending  elements  in  the  South- 
ern State  governments,  and  as  a  means  thereto,  the 
total  overthrow  and  dispersion  of  all  secret  sub- 
sidiary agencies.  In  its  ranks  all  conditions  of  white 
society  in  the  South  were  represented  —  attracted 
partly  by  the  weighty  political  considerations  upon 
which  the  movement  rested,  and  in  not  a  few  in- 
stances by, its  outside  of  novelty  and  vague  promise 
of  sensation.  Proceeding  under  an  oath-bound  cov- 
enant, it  invoked,  seemingly— by  adopting  the  em- 
blems of  their  rule  —  the  powers  of  darkness  to 
assume  the  protectorate  over  its  affairs,  and  levied 
on  the  code  of  pirates  for  a  rule  of  discipline  that 
should  awe  the  stoutest  hearts  into  meek  submis- 
siveness.  To  break  the  least  of  its  commandments 
was  esteemed  a  crime  for  which  death  would  be  a 
weak  expiation,  and  to  retreat  from  its  enterprises, 
good  or  evil,  bold  or  weak,  was  to  be  exposed  to 
a  fate  more  horrible  than  the  chain  and  vulture. 
Their  periodical  gatherings,  or  dark  seances,  were 
held  in  caves  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  where  they 


DETAILS    OF    ORGANIZATION.  73 

were  surrounded  by  what  might  be  aptly  termed 
the  panoply  of  the  lower  regions  —  rows  of  skulls, 
coffins  and  their  furniture,  human  skeletons,  omi- 
nous pictures  copied  from  the  darkest  passages  of  the 
Inferno  or  Paradise  Lost;  and,  brooding  over  all, 
that  spell-like  mystery  which  waited  ever  as  an 
inspiration  from  the  tomb  upon  the  movements  of 
the  weird  brotherhood.  Here,  habited  in  full  regalia, 
and  seated  in  alignment  on  raised  benches,  the  mem- 
bers of  the  Order  were  wont  to  receive  trembling 
initiates,  commune  together  about  affairs  of  gov- 
ernment, and  plan  midnight  raids  against  mortal 
enemies.  Frequently  these  conferences  were  brief, 
but  the  fires  were  always  lighted,  in  order  that  the 
still  inspiration  of  the  scene  might  not  be  wanting 
to  the  business  of  the  evening  —  the  ever-recurring 
raid  on  jail,  or  state-house,  or  Forest  League. 
Gowned  and  helmeted,  and  mounted  on  strong 
chargers,  invested,  as  far  as  possible,  with  the  char- 
acter of  their  riders,  the  ghostly  phalanx  galloped 
forth  to  predestined  conquest,  for  an  invisible  host 
fought  at  its  side,  and  each  man  bore  a  talisman  in 
his  outer  garb  which  might  have  affrighted  the 
armies  of  an  empire  from  the  field. 

The  government  of  the  Klan  proceeded  under  a 
rigid  constitutional  system  that  was  rarely  or  never 
amended.  Its  chief  officer,  or  ruler  of  what  was 
known  as  the  Empire,  was  elected  to  an  unlimited 
term  of  office,  and  entrusted  with  the  means  of 
despotic  rule.  His  official  title  was  Grand  Wizard, 
7 


74  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

and  he  was,  by  virtue  of  his  first  appointment,  com- 
mander-in-chief  of  the  army  or  military  force  con- 
stituted under  the  Empire.  The  officers  under  the 
latter  held  their  appointment  from  him,  and  com- 
posed his  counsel,  or  cabinet.  The  Grand  Division, 
or  Empire,  was  subdivided  into  Realms,  Provinces, 
and  Dens.  The  geographical  boundaries  of  the 
Realm  corresponded  with  those  of  the  congres- 
sional districts  in  the  several  States  under  Klan  do- 
minion, and  hence  were  equal  in  number.  The  chief 
officer  of  a  Realm  was  distinguished  by  the  title  of 
Grand  Vizier.  His  territory,  as  we  have  indicated, 
was  subdivided  into  Provinces,  whose  territorial 
limits  were  identical  with  those  of  counties  in  the 
same  location.  The  ruler  of  a  Province  was  termed 
a  Grand  Giant.  Under  Provinces,  Dens  were  organ- 
ized, which,  so  far  as  territorial  dominion  is  con- 
cerned, had  only  a  neighborhood  signification.  But 
they  were  really  the  executive  force,  and  through 
them,  as  individuals,  all  the  work  was  accomplished. 
The  commander  of  a  Den,  contradistinguished  from 
those  of  Realms  and  Provinces,  owed  his  rank  and 
authority  to  the  suffrages  of  those  whom  he  imme- 
diately ruled.  He  was  entitled  Grand  Cyclops,  and 
under  him  was  an  officer  known  as  Exchequer, 
whose  duties  had  a  twofold  signification,  and  applied 
to  the  administration  of  the  treasury  and  recording 
secretaryship.  There  were  from  four  to  six  scouts 
belonging  to  the  Den,  who  performed  courier  duty, 
and  to  whom  was  applied  the  titular  distinction  of 


DETAILS    OF    ORGANIZATION.  75 

Night-Hawks ;  and  in  addition  to  these,  and  also  in 
the  non-commissioned  rank,  each  thoroughly  organ- 
ized Den  had  its  Conductors  and  Guardians,  who 
were  local,  and  the  tenor  of  whose  duties  is  suffi- 
ciently indicated  by  their  titles  respectively. 

The  Dens  were  the  recruiting  agencies,  and  the 
officers  to  whom  was  assigned  this  duty  conducted 
the  work  with  the  utmost  secrecy  and  caution.  No 
individual  was  approached  who  was  not  known  by 
his  voluntary  avowals  to  be  in  sympathy  with  the 
movement.  When  such  a  confession  (which  must 
have  been  made  in  public)  was  reported  to  the  Den 
Council,  if  no  objection  was  alleged  against  the  in- 
dividual, a  committee  was  appointed  to  canvass  the 
subject  and  report  at  some  future  day.  Afterwards, 
if  no  local  disqualifications  were  still  urged,  recruit- 
ing agents  were  sent  to  interview  the  candidate,  who 
proceeded  with  such  circumspection  that  they  rarely 
failed  to  obtain  a  reply  to  the  inquiries  they  brought 
without  committing  themselves  or  their  cause.  A 
candidate  for  membership  who  had  been  approved 
was  conducted  to  the  Den  Council  in  the  night  sea- 
son and  by  circuitous  and  unknown  routes.  He 
was  also  securely  blindfolded,  and  the  Conductors 
(officers  of  escort)  were  forbidden  to  communicate 
with  him,  until  their  destination  had  been  reached. 
Arriving  in  some  sequestered  forest  grove,  he  was 
commanded  to  dismount, and  with  eyes  still  bandaged, 
and  the  former  policy  of  secrecy  maintained  in  all 
particulars,  was  conducted  into  the  presence  of  the 


76  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

council.  Here,  without  being  permitted  to  ask  ques- 
tions, he  was  requested  to  give  heed  to  what  was 
about  to  be  said,  and  when  the  Cyclops,  or  some 
individual  commissioned  by  him,  had  revealed  to  him 
the  objects  and  polity  of  the  organization  known  as 
K.  K.  K.,  and  the  quality  of  allegiance  exacted  from 
those  who  entered  its  ranks,  he  was  requested  to 
state  whether  he  still  wished  to  carry  out  his  origi- 
nal design  of  connecting  himself  with  the  Order. 
If  this  interrogatory  was  replied  to  in  the  negative, 
some  very  positive  oaths  and  threats  enjoining  se- 
crecy as  to  what  had  transpired  were  delivered  to 
him,  and  he  was  permitted  to  retire.  [This  policy 
was  invariably  pursued  by  the  Klan,  and  it  is  not 
probable  that  its  vows  were  ever  committed  to  an 
individual  who  had  not  obtained  the  full  consent  of 
his  mind  to  the  concessions  he  was  required  to  make.] 
On  the  contrary,  if  an  affirmative  reply  was  given, 
the  ceremony  of  initiation  was  proceeded  with,  —  a 
formula  which  we  shall  not  describe  in  this  place, 
further  than  to  say  that  the  vows,  which  were  deliv- 
ered in  a  kneeling  posture,  were  of  the  most  approved 
iron-clad  pattern,  and  that  to  each  was  attached  a 
string  of  penalties,  categorically  presented,  which 
aimed  at  nothing  less  than  the  annihilation  of  the 
transgressor. 

It  is  wrong  to  infer,  as  many  have  done,  that 
because  the  political  views  maintained  by  the  Klan 
corresponded  to  those  which  were  avowedly  held 
by  ex-Confederate  soldiers  at  that  period,  that  the 


DETAILS    OF    ORGANIZATION.  JJ 

former  was  recruited  from  the  latter  in  large  meas- 
ure, or,  as  the  enemies  of  both  were  apt  to  suggest, 
as  an  entirety.  Though  occupying  the  territory  in 
which  they  were  domiciled,  it  is  improbable  that 
one-half  the  available  force  which  the  former  boasted 
was  derived  from  the  latter  source,  and  it  is  certain 
that  a  majority  of  the  latter  did  not  give  their  sanc- 
tion nor  countenance  to  the  measures  adopted  by 
the  Klan  in  seeking  redress  for  alleged  political 
wrongs.  But  a  very  large  number  of  ex-Confeder- 
ates entered  its  ranks,  and,  perhaps  for  prudential 
(not  political)  reasons,  the  administration  of  Klan 
affairs  was,  in  a  large  measure,  committed  to  this 
element.  Its  force,  as  has  been  anticipated,  was 
recruited '  from  the  entire  white  population  of  the 
States  which  it  occupied ;  and  it  certainly  was  not 
wanting  in  that  respect  for  which  such  movements 
are  almost  wholly  dependent  on  the  character  of 
their  constituency.  Members  of  State  legislatures, 
congressmen,  and  governors  of  States,  took  its 
vows  upon  them,  and  were  not  unfrequently  to  be 
found  at  its  midnight  gatherings.  In  all  National 
and  State  elections  the  Klan  gave  its  political  suf- 
frages to  members  of  the  Order,  or  known  sympa- 
thizers. Indeed,  to  effect  its  political  ends  (which 
were  the  ends  of  its  organization),  there  were  few 
extremes  of  contumacious  conduct  which  it  did  not 
practise  towards  the  existing  State  governments. 
Not  only  did  it  throw  the  weight  of  its  suffrages  in 
behalf  of  favorites  —  it  forbade  others  the  exercise 
7* 


/8  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

of  this  privilege.  Freedmen  who  were  deemed  too 
ignorant  to  cast  an  intelligent  ballot  were  visited  at 
their  homes  in  the  small  hours  of  the  night,  and  by 
measures  of  intimidation,  which  not  unfrequently 
included  the  lash,  were  driven  to  accept  an  oath  of 
lengthy  abstinence  from  the  League  and  the  polls. 
White  men,  who  were  obnoxious  because  of  their 
too  active  instrumentality  in  League  affairs,  or  their 
excessive  fondness  for  the  class  of  society  which 
they  encountered  at  its  meetings,  were  equally  unfor- 
tunate. During  the  quiet  hours  of  the  night  ghostly 
placards,  bearing  the  caption  K.  K.  K.  in  large 
letters,  and  inscribed  with  the  escutcheon  of  the 
Order  (skull  and  cross-bones),  were  posted  on  their 
doors,  commanding  them  to  "skip  out"  (a  techni- 
cality invented  by  the  Klan),  or  expect  the  utmost 
vengeance  of  the  Order.  Where  the  rank  of  the 
offender  required  that  some  more  dignified  means  of 
notification  be  employed,  or  where  the  individual 
was  deemed  to  represent  very  obdurate  qualities  of 
soul,  instead  of  the  ordinary  method  aforesaid,  an 
empty  coffin  was  carted  to  his  door,  and  in  this  hor- 
rible symbol  of  its  anathemas  was  placed  the  order 
of  ejectment. 

The  social  system  was  sought  to  be  renovated  in 
the  use  of  the  same  summary  methods,  and  upon 
crimes  of  this  nature  the  severest  examples  of  Klan 
disfavor  were  constantly  visited.  The  carpet-bag 
element  recently  introduced  into  the  country  suf- 
fered most  frequently  in  this  category;  and  it  is  not 


DETAILS    OF    ORGANIZATION.  79 

too  much  to  say,  that  the  strict  construction  placed 
upon  the  social  laws  of  the  country,  and  upon  social 
decorum  as  an  abstraction,  by  the  weird  fraternity, 
was  to  this  class  one  of  the  most  intolerable  burdens 
of  Southern  exile.  To  miscegenate  was  quite  bad 
enough  (and  a  privilege  which  the  State  laws  denied 
them),  but  to  be  permitted  to  go  a  step  further,  and 
"  conglomerate,"  was  not  to  be  thought  of,  and  Klan 
discipline  was  brought  to  bear — one  of  its  few  acts 
which  has  received  the  unconditional  endorsement 
of  both  Northern  and  Southern  society. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

K.  K.  K.  CUSTOMS. 

The  Klan  never  did  its  Work  by  Halves — How  General  Orders 
were  Transmitted —  Form  of  General  Order — Its  Imbroglios  with 
the  League  —  Avoided  Conflict  with  United  States  Troops  —  Ku- 
Klux  Prosecutions  a  Weakness  of  the  Courts  —  League  Informers  — 
K.  K.  K.  Intimidation  of  Witnesses  —  Memento  Mori — Crusade 
of  the  Ermined  Ranks — Misdirected  Prosecutions  —  Obligation  to 
Disregard  Judicial  Oaths  when  they  Conflicted  with  the  Plans  and 
Policy  of  the  Order  —  No  Patch-spots  in  its  System  of  Government 
— Weird  Drill  —  Absenteeism  not  one  of  the  Strong  Points  of  the 
Brotherhood  —  The  Klan  a  Bitter  Enemy  of  those  Unorganized 
Parties  of  Ruffians  who  made  War  on  their  kind  in  the  former's 
Name  —  Its  Right  to  Borrow  Sympathy  on  this  Exchange  a  Grave 
Question  of  Doubt — Vendettas  Conducted  against  the  "Shams." 

THE  Klan  never  did  its  work  by  halves,  nor 
never  pronounced  a  meaningless  threat.  If  an 
individual  was  warned  to  leave  the  country  at  a 
certain  date,  there  was  no  help  for  it,  neither  were 
there  any  extensions  of  time  or  modifications  of 
original  orders.  Had  members  of  the  Order  been 
incarcerated  in  a  county  prison  for  Klan  offences, 
and  a  rescue  been  planned,  the  bars  must  yield  at 
a  certain  hour.  If  some  poor  wretch  was  doomed 
by  order  of  the  Council  to  suffer  under  its  laws  of 
extradition,  the  weird  scout  was  "  over  the  borders 

80 


K.  K.  K.  CUSTOMS.  8l 

and  away  "  ere  its  absence  could  be  noted,  or  electric 
messages  sent  to  notify  the  authorities  of  the  im- 
pending outrage. 

When  the  Grand  Wizard  wished  to  promulgate  an 
order,  the  newspapers  were  the  medium  commonly 
sought.  His  commands  in  the  use  of  this  means 
were  delivered  to  the  next  in  rank,  and  by  him 
transmitted  to  the  Grand  Giant  of  the  province 
named,  an  officer  who  maintained  constant  commu- 
nications with  the  Den  system.  No  Den  was  re- 
quired to  execute  a  general  order  within  the  terri- 
tory which  it  occupied,  and  in  but  rare  instances 
did  it  proceed  to  enforce  its  own  local  measures. 
This  force  was,  in  almost  every  instance,  employed 
beyond  its  own  boundaries,  and  not  unfrequently 
crossed  the  borders  of  the  province,  and  even  the 
realm  to  which  it  belonged,  in  the  execution  of 
raiding  commands.  The  territorial  subdivisions  of 
the  Order  were  each  numbered  according  to  class, 
a  precaution  which  was  found  to  be  indispensable  in 
the  transmission  of  "  general  orders."  The  latter 
were  usually  in  the  following  form  : 

To  the  Grand  Cyclops  of  Den  No.  5,  Province  No.  4, 

Realm  No.  3. 

Greeting :  You  are  hereby  commanded  to  report 
with  your  entire  command  to  the  Grand  Giant  of 
your  province  for  duty  in  D.  6,  P.  5,  R.  4. 

Speed.  G.  W. 

These  titles  were  not  always   employed   in   the 
F 


82  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

published  orders ;  but  where  they  were  omitted, 
some  descriptive  term  equally  well  understood  was 
substituted. 

The  raiding  force  always  moved  in  the  night 
season,  and  members  of  the  Order  never  exhibited 
themselves  in  the  Ku-Klux  role  in  the  daytime. 
When  the  cock  crew,  no  churchyard  edition  of  the 
animal  ever  sought  the  friendly  shadow  of  the  daisies 
with  greater  precipitancy  than  did  the  individual  K. 
K.  K.  the  inner  chambers  of  the  Den. 

Their  imbroglios  were  in  almost  all  cases  with 
the  organization  known  as  the  Loyal  League  ;  but 
though  they  bore  arms,  and  waged  a  campaign  whose 
avowed  object  was  the  annihilation  of  this  hated 
enemy,  yet  in  their  dealings  with  its  members  their 
ultimatum  rarely  bore  an  emphasis  strong  enough  to 
excite  the  opposition  of  the  local  authorities.  And  to 
their  credit  it  must  likewise  be  said  (a  fact  that  was 
considered  by  the  State  authorities  at  a  recent  date  in 
promulgating  pardons  to  members  of  the  Klan),  that 
they  avoided  collisions  with  the  United  States  troops, 
and  in  no  instance,  though  frequently  pursued,  and 
sometimes  driven  to  the  wall  by  the  exertions  of  the 
latter  when  employed  in  behalf  of  their  enemies, 
were  they  ever  known  to  burn  powder  against  their 
country's  armed  servitors.  Neither  did  they  inter- 
fere with  the  courts  of  the  country  in  administering 
the  laws  from  a  national  standpoint,  though  in  some 
instances  criminals  were  taken  from  the  county  jails 
before  "oyer"  had  been  pronounced  in  their  cases. 


K.  K.  K.  CUSTOMS.  83 

Members  of  the  Order  did  not,  nor  could  not, 
according  to  their  construction  of  Klan  government, 
belong  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  courts,  more  espe- 
cially the  Federal  courts,  And  though  trials  were 
never  interfered  with  until  their  officers  had  satisfied 
themselves  that  it  would  be  impossible  to  convict 
one  of  its  members  on  a  charge  of  complicity  in  its 
affairs,  yet  in  the  event  of  an  unfavorable  verdict  and 
attempted  sentence,  it  is  certain  that  resistance  of 
some  character  would  have  been  offered.  Ku-Klux 
trials  were  one  of  the  weaknesses  of  the  courts  at 
this  period,  and  while  numbers  were  arraigned  on 
this  charge  who  were  guilty,  and  merited  discipline, 
it  may  be  safely  estimated  that  a  majority  of  these 
prosecutions  were  conducted  against  persons  who 
were  not  only  innocent  of  collusion  in  its  affairs,  but 
who  execrated  the  Klan  as  heartily  as  did  their  over- 
zealous  inquisitors.  Members  of  the  League  were 
the  informers,  and  not  unfrequently  the  only  wit- 
nesses in  these  trials ;  and  when  it  is  remembered 
that  their  zeal  for  justice,  as  the  blind  goddess  was 
viewed  by  them,  burned  with  about  equal  warmth 
against  that  portion  of  the  white  population  who 
were  symbolized  in  this  way  and  those  who  were 
not,  the  farcical  nature  of  these  proceedings  in  num- 
berless instances  will  be  understood.  But  when  it 
was  known  that  testimony  had  been  suborned  against 
members  of  the  Order,  the  Klan  proceeded  to  ex- 
treme lengths  in  construing  the  statute  for  perjury, 
and  in  -visiting  its  penalties  on  the  offender.  Not 


84  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

only  so,  but  on  the  eve  of  these  judicial  examina- 
tions, the  Dens,  as  well  as  individual  members 
thereof,  were  particularly  active  in  the  work  of 
destroying  testimony  by  intimidating  witnesses,  a 
common  form  of  the  threats  employed  being  the 
words  memento  mori  written  plainly  on  a  blank  sheet 
of  paper,  and  clandestinely  conveyed  to  the  sus- 
pected party.  To  ignorant  persons,  the  mystery  of 
this  latter  proceeding  alone  went  not  a  little  way 
towards  accomplishing  the  object  in  view. 

While  such  precautions  were  taken,  and  no  doubt 
proved  of  vast  service  in  enabling  the  Order  to  re- 
sist that  crusade  of  the  ermined  ranks  to  which  we 
have  referred,  the  leaders  of  the  K.  K.  K.  succeeded 
in  obtaining,  from  the  membership  at  large,  a  very 
important  concession  in  morals  affecting  this  subject, 
and  one  which  we  believe  has  been  hitherto  resisted 
by  the  draft  of  secret  societies  on  this  continent, 
viz.,  an  obligation  to  disregard  judicial  oaths  where 
they  conflicted  with  the  plans  and  policy  of  the 
Order.  To  illustrate  this  point,  a  leading  form  of 
the  interrogatory  propounded  to  witnesses  in  these 
trials  was :  "Are  you  aware  of  the  existence  of  a 
secret  political  organization  known  as  the  Ku  Klux 
Klan  ? "  and  though  parties  thus  addressed  were 
often  possessed  of  the  most  incontestable  evidence 
of  the  truth  sought  to  be  elicited,  it  was  not  deemed 
dishonest,  nor  in  any  sense  immoral,  to  reply  nega- 
tively. The  oath  of  secrecy  which  members  (vol- 
untarily) took  upon  themselves  when  they  entered 


K.  K.  K.  CUSTOMS.  8$ 

the  Klan  was  supposed  to  extinguish  the  guilt  of 
this  transaction,  though  we  are  not  told  precisely 
in  what  way  the  double  entendres  and  tricks  of  eva- 
sion, practised  by  such  witnesses  at  subsequent 
stages  of  the  trial,  were  to  be  construed. 

But  as  we  shall  have  occasion  to  refer  to  this  topic 
from  time  to  time,  as  the  work  progresses,  we  will 
not  at  present  allude  further  to  the  subject  of  Ku- 
Klux  trials  and  their  furniture  of  fiction. 

The  Klan  was  thoroughly  organized.  There  were 
no  patch-spots  in  its  system  of  government.  Its 
tactics  of  drill  were  in  some  sense  peculiar,  but  it 
sufficiently  resembled  that  adopted  by  the  cavalry 
branch  of  the  United  States  army  to  be  mistaken  for 
it  in  all  the  leading  manoeuvres.  The  men  were  perfect 
in  company  drill,  and  were  required  to  attend  all  Den 
meetings,  or  be  assessed  onerous  fines -or  other  pen- 
alties. Absenteeism  was  not,  however,  one  of  the 
strong  points  of  the  brotherhood ;  and  a  Den  rarely 
moved  towards  raiding  territory  without  its  full 
quota  of  men.  The  raids  moved  with  astonishing 
celerity — a  circumstance  which  was  rendered  neces- 
sary to  the  most  perfect  secrecy  of  these  move- 
ments, and  was  also  imperative  in  view  of  the  long 
distances  to  be  traversed.  The  hours  between  twi- 
light in  the  evening  and  dawn,  according  to  a  Me- 
dean  law  of  the  K.  K.  K.,  as  we  have  anticipated, 
could  only  be  appropriated  to  this  labor ;  and  when 
it  is  explained  that  companies  of  men  frequently 
left  the  Den  rendezvous  for  raiding  objectives  forty 
' 


86  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

miles  distant,  and  returned  to  the  former  point  with- 
out dismounting,  our  conclusion  above  will  be  seen 
to  be  authorized. 

The  Grand  Cyclops  was  not  only  the  chief  of  the 
Den  Council  and  an  absolutist  in  authority  as  to  its 
domestic  affairs,  but  was  also  the  chief  officer  in 
command  of  a  raid,  and  must  have  been  looked  to 
for  all  special  directions  regarding  its  conduct.  The 
Exchequer  possessed  a  similar  prerogative,  and  be- 
came the  orderly  or  adjutant  on  the  march; 

The  Klan  was  the  bitter  enemy  of  those  Unorgan- 
ized parties  of  ruffians  who  made  war  on  their  kind 
in  the  former's  name,  and  the  sum  of  whose  villanies 
never  failed  to  be  debited  in  this  way.  Hardly  a 
week  passed,  during  the  excitement  which  gave  rise 
to  both,  and  which  they,  in  turn,  converted  into  a 
reign  of  terror  whose  strong  points  the  Duke  of 
Alva  might  have  studied  to  advantage,  in  which  the 
secret  organization  was  not  made  to  suffer  under 
some  such  confidence  arrangement ;  and  to  say  that 
its  adipose  suffered  under  this  bereavement  of  men's 
regards  which  it  could  so  illy  spare,  will  not,  we 
fear,  adequately  present  the  situation.  It,  however, 
had  placed  itself  in  a  position  by  which  its  motives 
were  liable  to  be  misinterpreted ;  and  as  one  of  its 
professed  foibles  was  its  ability  to  cover  up  its  tracks 
in  the  least  mysterious  of  its  transactions ;  and,  as 
during  the  French  Renaissance,  times  analogous  to 
these,  to  wear  a  mask  was  esteemed  a  crime  from 
which  all  other  crimes  might  be  inferred,  we  doubt 


K.  K.  K.  CUSTOMS.  87 

whether  its  right  to  borrow  sympathy  on  this  ex- 
change could  be  logically  maintained. 

But  while  the  Klan  was  doomed  to  nurse  its  woes 
of  this  character  in  not  a  few  instances,  they  proved 
immedicable  wounds ;  and  where  the  perpetrators 
became  known,  or  even  suspected,  it  conducted  a 
vendetta  against  the  individual  conspirators  which 
proved  far  more  effective  than  all  the  organized 
efforts  of  the  "  best  government." 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE  KLAN  IN  TENNESSEE. 

Misgovernment  in  Tennessee  —  The  Loyal  League  and  the  State  Ad- 
ministration—  The  K.  K.  K.  an  Outgrowth  of  the  Conditions 
which  the  former  Inspired  —  Rapid  Development  of  the  Order  on 
Tennessee  Soil  —  Its  Purposes  of  Revenge  —  Legislation  on  the 
Subject —  A  Governor's  Proclamation  —  Militia  called  out  and  De- 
tectives Employed  — The  State  pronounced  a  Ku-Klux  Barracks  — 
The  Loyal  League  in  various  Localities  Succumbing  to  the  New  Ele- 
ment of  Conquest  —  A  State  Council  of  the  League  Summoned  to 
meet  at  Nashville  —  The  Governor  to  Preside  —  The  Secret  out,  and 
Counter  Measures  Resolved  upon  by  the  Rival  Party  —  Spies  sent  to 
Nashville  —  League  Places  of  Rendezvous  throughout  the  State  sub- 
jected to  Espionage  —  A  War  of  Extermination  against  the  Latter  — 
A  Simultaneous  Uprising  of  the  K.  K.  K.  throughout  the  State  and 
Concerted  Raids  against  the  L.L.  Rendezvous  in  various  Neighbor- 
hoods—  Military  Accomplishments  of  the  Grand  Wizard  —  Sub- 
commanders  in  Charge  of  the  Expedition  —  Capture  of  Secret 
Papers  —  Ku-Klux  Hollow-square  —  Oath  administered  to  Captives 
—  Success  of  the  Undertaking —  Shifting  of  Conditions. 

AS  early  as  the  spring  of  1866,  the  head  of  the 
Order  announced  that  the  recruiting-books  for 
the  State  of  Tennessee  showed  a  force  of  eighty 
thousand  men;  and  it  was  here,  and  about  this  date, 
that  some  of  the  most  eventful  scenes  connected 
with  the  history  of  the  K.  K.  K.  were  enacted.  This 
State  had  been  committed  to  League  control  early 

88 


THE    KLAN    IN    TENNESSEE.  89 

after  peace  was  declared  by  the  general  government, 
and  the  bitter  proscription  at  once  inaugurated 
against  the  white  race,  under  the  combined  patronage 
of  the  League  and  the  existing  State  government, 
not  only  excited  the  strenuous  opposition  of  all  those 
who  anchored  their  faith  to  the  Conservative  idea  in 
politics  throughout  this  and  neighboring  States,  but 
called  forth  a  warm  protest  from  those  disinterested 
partisans  at  the  North  who  had  recently  been  erected 
into  what  is  known  as  the  moderate  Republican  or 
Independent  party.  Disfranchisement,  in  its  most 
radical  form,  excluded  the  intelligent  voters  of  the 
State  from  all  participation  in  its  affairs;  tax  laws 
came  up  for  amendment  at  each  session  of  the  State 
legislature,  and  in  connection  with  other  expenses 
of  government  (for  such  they  had  become),  were 
sextupled  in  the  end;  the  most  quiet  and  law-abiding 
neighborhoods  were  placed  under  military  surveil- 
lance, or  driven  to  suffer  the  penalty  of  confiscation 
acts  whose  terms  might  have  included  the  entire  race 
of  mankind ;  and  finally,  every  device  of  ignorant  and 
intemperate  legislation  applied,  whose  effect  would 
be  to  render  the  government  unsuited  to  the  wants 
of  the  people,  and  convert  the  latter  into  a  body  of 
malcontents.  This  end  appears,  indeed,  to  have  been 
contemplated  by  the  League  faction  at  that  stage  of 
its  supremacy  when  its  attainment  seemed  most  im- 
probable; but  when  the  reality,  or  something  which 
very  much  resembled  it,  came  upon  them,  they  dis- 
owned the  .abortion,  and  invited  their  friends  at  the 
8* 


gO  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

North  to  behold  with  what  consistency  the  old  rebel 
stump  was  putting  forth  green  shoots  of  disunion. 

We  shall  not  express  a  preference  for  either  of 
these  bad  extremes  of  the  politics  of  that  period, 
but  in  order  to  a  proper  understanding  of  the  ques- 
tion, we  deem  it  no  impropriety  to  state  that  it  was 
a  fact  well  known,  and  illustrated  elsewhere,  that 
wheresoever  the  League  animal  deposited  its  spawn, 
with  due  regard  for  atmospheric  conditions,  the  K.  K. 
K.  insect  would  shortly  drop  its  chrysalis. 

In  looking  over  the  history  of  those  times  in  Ten- 
nessee, the  student  need  be  at  no  loss  in  seeking 
out  the  exact  causes  of  the  Ku-Klux  movement  as 
it  existed  on  her  soil,  nor  of  finding  its  dimensions 
from  this  given  mean.  As  large  as  was  the  Klan 
force,  it  probably  did  not  exceed  the  League  in  num- 
bers, and  had  many  disadvantages  to  meet  which  the 
latter,  helped  forward  by  its  government  patronage, 
did  not  regard  as  impediments.  But  it  had  injuries 
to  redress,  burning  wrongs  to  avenge,  and  cherishing 
these  incentives,  it  laughed  at  legislative  penalties, 
and  burned  to  join  battle  with  those  dispensers  of 
Ku-Klux  halters  who  dealt  in  this  and  like  judicial 
pleasantries  at  their  expense. 

Having  had  its  birth  in  the  western  district  of  the 
State,  where  the  elements  of  a  rapid  growth  were 
found,  it  was  quickly  communicated  to  the  central 
counties  and  the  neighborhood  of  the  capital,  and 
finding  its  way  thence  over  the  Cumberland  Moun- 
tains—  before  its  presence  was  even  suspected  in  that 


THE    KLAN     IN    TENNESSEE.  9! 

-  loyal  quarter  —  developed  a  shamrock  growth  on  the 
soil  of  East  Tennessee.  Within  three  months  from 
the  time  the  first  Den  was  organized  on  her  territory, 
the  K.  K.  K.  had  reached  its  highest  growth  in  num- 
bers and  strength  of  resources,  and  announced  itself 
ready  and  anxious  to  meet  the  army  in  buckram, 
whom  it  asserted  represented  the  cause  of  misgov- 
ernment  on  Tennessee  soil.  Its  plans  were  quickly 
developed,  and  the  destruction  of  a  half  dozen  or  more 
dark-lantern  societies,  which  lay  more  on  the  surface 
of  things  than  was  thought  to  be  polite,  alarmed  the 
State  functionaries,  and  called  attention  to  their  pro- 
ceedings in  a  form  quite  as  disagreeable  as  the  most 
ultra  of  the  party  could  have  desired.  The  subject 
first  came  before  the  legislature,  and  steps  were  taken 
which  it  was  presumed  would  "put  a  head  on  the 
monster "  (to  literally  quote  one  of  the  Buncombe 
addresses  before  that  august  body),  but  the  incescriba- 
ble  nonchalance  of  the  proceedings,  which  seemed 
directed  at  a  child's  toy-house  rather  than  a  nest  of 
boa  constrictors,  only  excited  the  K.'s  to  new  activity. 
A  Governor's  proclamation  was  next  called  for;  soon 
afterwards  secret  measures  were  instituted  looking 
to  the  employment  of  a  force  of  detectives;  and 
finally,  the  militia  were  summoned  to  assemble,  but, 
despite  all,  the  crooked  wonder  grew,  and  the  more 
industrious  the  efforts  put  forth  to  curtail  its  exist- 
ence the  more  it  grew  and  the  greater  the  occasion 
it  saw  for  this  exertion. 

In  the  summer  of  this  year,  the  members  of  the 


92  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

legislature  of  Tennessee,  in  council  assembled,  pro- 
nounced the  State  a  Ku-Klux  barracks,  and  resolved 
themselves  unsafe  in  their  granite  citadel  at  Nash- 
ville. The  League  head-quarters  in  various  parts 
of  the  State  were  succumbing  one  by  one  to  the 
new  element  of  conquest,  and,  indeed,  the  State 
seemed  on  the  eve  of  a  revolution,  by  which,  if  no 
more  serious  results  were  attained,  its  territory 
would  be  rendered  untenable  for  that  class  of  its  popu- 
lation which  was  known  to  its  enemies  as  the  dark- 
lantern  faction.  In  this  emergency,  the  leaders  of 
the  L.  L.  resolved  to  call  a  State  council  of  the 
Order,  over  whose  deliberations  the  Governor  should 
preside,  and  whose  object  would  be  to  devise  ways 
and  means  for  the  destruction  of  their  troublesome 
enemies.  Great  preparations  were  made  accord- 
ingly, and  without  divulging  their  plans,  it  was 
resolved,  at  the  conclusion  of  the  secret  proceedings, 
to  hold  a  mass  meeting  at  the  capital  which  should 
review  the  whole  subject.  This  body  assembled  at 
the  specified  date,  but  not  before  the  rival  party  had 
become  fully  acquainted  with  its  plans  and  purposes, 
and  in  convention  assembled  resolved  upon  counter 
measures. 

On  the  very  evening  which  the  Council  had  set 
apart  for  its  introductory  proceedings  (in  the  city  of 
Nashville),  the  indefatigable  K.'s  had  issued  com- 
mands throughout  the  State  requiring  every  mem- 
ber of  the  Order  to  report  at  his  Den  head-quarters 
for  special  service.  A  force  of  spies  was  dispatched 


THE    KLAN     IN    TENNESSEE.  93 

to  the  neighborhood  of  the  League  Council,  and 
the  brief  period  which  was  to  elapse  before  the 
Solons  would  arrive  and  enter  upon  the  solemn 
business  in  hand  was  appropriated  by  these  secret 
agents,  and  their  co-conspirators  in  other  neighbor- 
hoods, to  the  work  of  obtaining  information  from 
deserters,  chance  prisoners,  etc.,  as  to  the  exact  loca- 
tion and  surroundings  of  the  League  places  of  ren- 
dezvous throughout  the  State.  Indeed,  while  the 
League  had  busied  itself  with  a  very  red  confla- 
gration devoted  to  the  Ku-Klux  fat,  whensoever 
they  should  overtake  that  slippery  substance,  the 
much  persecuted  "krookeds"  had  doubled  tack  on 
them,  and  only  awaited  a  fair  wind  to  convert  their 
little  game  into  a  "  double  reversible,"  quite  as  com- 
plicated as  any  that  had  dawned  upon  the  patent- 
machine  mind  previous  to  that  date. 

A  war  of  extermination  against  the  League  had 
been  resolved  upon  months  before  by  the  leaders 
of  the  Klan,  but  a  favorable  moment  for  a  decisive 
blow,  or  the  emergency  requiring  it,  had  not  arrived, 
until  both  were  visible  in  the  proposed  State  council 
of  the  Order  and  the  objects  it  would  consider. 
Now,  destiny  seemed  rushing  upon  them,  and  the 
time  almost  too  brief  to  make  an  intelligent  feint 
on  the  enemy's  front.  But  promptness  of  stratagem, 
and  rapid  development  of  passing  advantages,  was 
perhaps  the  strongest  point  in  the  military  character 
of  the  distinguished  leader  of  this  movement,  for 
where  others  halted,  awed  by  the  proportions  of 
an  undertaking,  or  the  suddenness  of  combinations 


94  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

effected  in  their  front,  he  only  felt  an  inspiration  to 
go  forward.  The  force  which  participated  in  the 

attack  on  the  evening  of- ipth,  1866,  did  not 

fall  far  short  of  one  hundred  thousand  men,  and  yet, 
thirty-six  hours  previous  to  this  time,  the  occasion 
had  not  presented  itself  to  the  mind  of  the  veteran 
who  planned  the  attack  as  suitable  therefor.  A  well 
organized  and  lightly-equipped  force  proved  un- 
questionably a  sine  qua  non  in  rendering  the  dispo- 
sitions of  the  commander  successful ;  but  we  doubt 
if  it  would  be  fair  to  subtract  this  circumstance  from 
the  glory  of  the  undertaking,  if  the  reader  is  in- 
formed that  it  had  been  developed  from  the  same 
ingenious  source  with  special  reference  thereto. 

In  the  attack  which  followed,  each  Den  consti- 
tuted an  independent  force,  and  was  under  the 
immediate  command  of  the  Grand  Cyclops.  In- 
deed, no  other  officer  was  known  on  the  field, 
though  it  was  sufficiently  apparent,  at  the  time,  that 
each  had  received  his  allotted  task  from  a  superior, 
and  it  was  afterwards  divulged  that  they  had  acted 
under  written  orders.  At  ten  o'clock  precisely,  the 
commands  moved  (from  the  various  points  of  rendez- 
vous selected),  and  were  allotted  one  hour  to  each 
ten  miles  of  distance  to  be  traversed.  They  were 
in  full  uniform,  and  though  they  carried  arms,  were 
commanded  not  to  fire,  nor  to  return  a  fire,  except 
under  orders.  En  route  they  avoided  public  roads 
and  dense  settlements,  and  on  approaching  their 
destination  changed  the  order  of  march  (by  twos) 
to  close  column  by  fours,  when  the  command  was 


THE    KLAN    IN    TENNESSEE.  95 

"charge."  After  the  building,  which  formed  the 
object  of  attack,  came  in  view,  no  time  was  to  be 
lost,  and  its  investment  completed  as  rapidly  as 
possible.  Attempted  refugees  were  to.  be  forced 
back  within  the  walls,  and  in  no  event  was  an 
escape  to  be  permitted.  A  party  of  six  resolute 
men  were  detached  from  each  squadron  for  special 
duty,  in  securing  the  papers,  books,  and  other  writ- 
ten documents  of  the  League  meeting,  and  this 
movement  was  so  far  pivotal  in  its  character,  that 
their  comrades  were  commanded  to  keep  their  pro- 
ceedings in  view,  and  be  ready  at  a  signal  to  render 
them  assistance.  After  a  thorough  search  of  the 
premises  had  been  accomplished,  the  dismounted 
men  without  were  commanded  to  take  their  station 
within  the  building,  and  form  the  hollow-square  of 
the  order. 

As  so  tnudh  has  been  said  concerning  this  feature 
of  their  drill,  and  so  little  really  known,  we  give  the 
exact  figure  in  the  cut  below.  It  may  be  imitated 
by  arranging  two  letters  K  with  their  backs  to  each 
other,  and  doubtless  originated  from  this  device. 

id 

fcu-Klux  Hollow-square. 

This  ghostly  evolution  having  been  performed,  and 
the  trembling  Leaguers  finding  themselves  invested 
at  every  point,  the  Grand  Cyclops  had  orders  to 
ascend  the  rostrum,  and  from  that  elevated  position 
deliver  to  the  (constructive)  culprits  an  oath  whose 


96  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

principal  features  were  as  follows :  To  forever  abjure 
all  allegiance  to  the  secret  organization  known  as 
the  Loyal  League ;  to  cease  to  employ  the  elective 
franchise  as  an  instrument  of  oppression  against  the 
white  population  of  the  State;  to  forsake  the  ac- 
quaintance of  all  men,  irrespective  of  party,  who 
sought  to  profit  by  their  votes ;  and  finally,  to  ab- 
stain, under  pain  of  the  severest  penalties,  from  all 
efforts  to  investigate  or  otherwise  disturb  the  mysti- 
cal beings  who  stood  before  them,  and  who,  at  some 
future  time,  if  deemed  expedient,  would  accord  them 
further  and  more  convincing  proofs  of  their  ghostly 
genealogy.  This  command  having  been  executed, 
the  lights  were  to  be  blown  out  at  a  signal,  and  the 
parties,  disappearing  by  the  most  secret  routes  pos- 
sible, to  hasten  forward  to  a  point  of  rendezvous  one 
mile  distant. 

Such  was  the  plan  of  campaign  resolved  upon  by 
the  Grand  Wizard  and  his  advisers ;  and  that  it  was 
successful  in  every  particular  is  a  fact  which  we  need 
hardly  repeat,  in  view  of  the  numerous  hints  con- 
veyed in  the  written  history  of  those  times.  While 
the  State  Council  of  the  Loyal  League  was  guessing 
itself  dry  over  the  great  "  konundrum,"  and,  at  the 
same  time,  making  such  a  sine  die  disposition  of  its 
remains  as  was  rendered  feasible  by  broadsides  of 
eloquence  and  sixthlies  of  courageous  resolve,  that 
lively  "  korps(e)"  had  frisked  from  its  abode,  and 
with  the  alacrity  of  a  "  monkey  on  a  trapeze-bar " 
(in  the  language  of  the  oil-regions)  "  went  through 
them." 


CHAPTER  X. 

.  THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE  IN  COUNCIL. 

Speech  of  Hon.  Bones  Button  before  the  State  Council  of  the  Loyal 
League  —  What  followed  —  Amusing  Contretemps. 

MR.  CHEERMON,  and  Gemmens  :  Der  crisis 
am  upon  us.  I  repeats,  surs,  and  wishes  dat 
dis  obserwashun  should  sink  down  into  de  conclu- 
sibness  ob  ebery  individooal  who  heers  me.  Der 
Ku —  crisis  am  upon  us.  As  a  member  of  dis 
spectifle  body,  I  am  de  las'  pusson  who  would  wish 
to  use  my  perfesshun  to  cover  up  dis  sollum  trufe. 
We  is  stannin',  Mr.  Cheermon,  upon  de  ragged  con- 
founs  ob  de  bloody  kazzum ;  and  I  repeats,  dat  de 
question  for  us  to  solve  dis  ebenin'  is :  Shall  we  go 
fowards,  or  be  pushed  fowards.  [Sensation.]  Fur 
be  it  frum  me  to  "  sing  de  song  ob  de  sirum  "  when 
de  liberties  ob  de  black  man  am  inwaded,  and  de 
nasshumal  honor  is  bein'  piled  in  de  dust  by  de  rab- 
ble (rebel)  asstocracy.  But,  surs,  lookin'  up  to  de 
umbragus  folds  ob  dat  spar-strangled  banner,  I  is 
impressed  with  anoder  conclushun,  and  it  is  in  dese 
wurds  follerin,  to  wit :  We  is  occupyin'  de  ticklish 
edge  ob  a  dillemmer,  in  de  lite  ob  which  de  man  who 
crossed  de  Rubimcom  am  but  a  faint  epistle.  Yes, 
9  G  97 


98  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

my  spectifle  feller-bredren,  to  use  a  catephoricle 
flower  ob  de  tropics,  we  have  arriv'  at  a  tite  spot. 
We  am  obfusticated,  so  to  speak.  [Assenting  groans 
throughout  the  assembly.]  Den  de  riddle  for  us  to 
read  dis  ebenin',  in  de  light  ob  dese  distressin'  sur- 
kumstances,  is  :  What  ar'  to  be  did  ?  In  addressin' 
de  collectiv*  wisdum  of  dis  orguss  resemblage,  I 
axes,  is  we  to  go  fowards  ?  Is  we  to  wait  till  de  nex' 
ebenin'  or  de  nex'  year?  Is  we  to  fold  our  hans 
behind  our  bax,  and  hole  our  bref  suspinely  until  de 
Klu-Krux  animile  has  squatted  hisself  squar"  down 
on  our  liberties  ?  Is  we,  I  ax,  to  bump  down  in  de 
middle  ob  dat  rode  whar'  de  Klu-Krux  Juggernox 
goes  tootin'  majestercally  along  over  de  dethroned 
carcasses  ob  de  black  man,  and  whar  you  may  holler 
peace !  peace !  but  you  can't  be  heard ;  and  you 
would  n't  be  notissed  if  you  was. 

But,  Mr.  Cheermon,  before  perceedin'  fudder  wid 
de  docturnal  pints  of  dis  discusshun,  I  shall  have 
sumfin  to  say  in  respex  to  Klu-Krux-Klam  from  a 
scienticular  pint  of  obserwashun.  How  is  dis,  I  ax? 
Whar  is  de  gettin'  out  place,  de  tail,  so  to  speak,  of 
dis  conundrum  ?  [A  pause,  during  which  several 
members  are  observed  to  scratch  their  heads  medi- 
tatively.] Dar  am  a  proverb  which  says,  "  Ketch  a 
Klu-Krux  before  you  puts  him  to  def"  or  words  to 
dat  effec.  Dat  feature  of  de  bizness  I  disposes  to 
ten'  to  in  pusson,  Mr.  Cheermon,  and  if  I  can  git  de 
contention  of  de  brilyunt  dissembly  what  sits  in 
judgment  upon  dis  and  oder  topics  dis  ebenin',  I  will 


THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE  IN  COUNCIL.     99 

open  de  merits  of  dis  opinyun  to  de  verymost  chile 
in  understandin'.  Sposen  dat  we  takes  dese  wurds, 
"  Klu  Krux  Klam,"  as  dey  'peers  in  de  original  Greek, 
and  transplants  dem  into  de  original  Inglish.  Take 
de  word  Klu,  dat  wurd  about  which  dare  has  been  so 
much  unsiantickle  sputin,  and  what  is  dare  in  it? 
Is  dare  an  individooal  under  de  soun'  of  my  voice 
who  duzzent  know  de  orfograthy  of  a  wurd  of  three 
monysimples  ?  Is  dare,  I  axes,  in  dis  orguss  body,  a 
pusson  who  is  sich  a  babe  in  understandin'  dat  he 
duzzent  know  dat  b-a-k-e-r  spells  baccer?  Den  I 
say  to  my  spectifle  feller-sitterzens,  dat  if  you  will 
take  de  wurd  Klu,  and  hang  its  ole  fashyun'd  Ing- 
lish close  on  it,  dat  it  will  spell  "clew,"  and  if  dat  is 
so,  what  fudder  clew  could  you  have  to  dis  whole 
subjec'  ?  [A  member  here  rose  to  a  point  of  order, 
objecting  to  the  "orfograthy"  of  the  Hon.  Bones' 
premise,  and  claiming  that  the  word  under  discus- 
sion was  not  "  klu,"  but  "  ku."  There  is  no  tell- 
ing what  this  might  have  resulted  in,  if  the  individ- 
ual had  been  provided  with  documentary  proof  of 
his  statement ;  but  as  he  was  not,  he  was  compelled 
to  retire  amid  the  jeers  of  the  audience  and  the  loud 
taunts  of  the  speaker,  who  elevated  himself  on  a 
bench  in  order  that  his  rhetoric  in  this  instance 
might  have  its  full  effect]  Den,  my  feller-sitterzens, 
if  de  wurd  "  klu  "  means  what  it  says  it  duz,  de 
wurd  "  krux  "  means  krux,  and  de  wurd  "  klam  " 
means  klam  —  dat  is  to  say,  if  the  wurd  klu  means 
dew,  neither  of  dese  wurds  means  nuffin'.  Dat 


IOO  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

pint  is  suffishuntly  clur  to  a  man  up  a  tree,  and  no 
doubt  is  understood  by  de  gemmen  who  spells 
"klu"  widoutal. 

But,  cummin'  back  to  de  merits  of  de  discushun,  I 
disposes  now,  Mr.  Cheermon,  to  angeline  de  word 
klu,  which,  as  I  has  before  tuk  occashun  to  say,  is 
de  clew  to  dis  whole  mystery.  Let  us  taik  de  con- 
summant  k,  which  is  de  indecks  letter,  and  pints 
to  what  follers.  Duz  dis  letter  have  any  siggerfica- 
tion  apart  from  its  connectin'  links  in  dis  wurd,  or 
duz  it  hav  such  a  siggerfication  ?  I  beleevs  dat  de 
intellumgence  of  every  pusson  in  dis  orgunce,  if  I 
may  except  one  individooal,  will  bar  me  out  dat  it 
duz.  Dat  pint  bein'  settled  in  a  excloosive  way, 
which,  I  may  sugges',  is  much  de  smallest  part  of  de 
wurk,  we  must  now  perceed  to  find  de  siggerfication 
aforesed,  and  de  logickle  delusions  upon  which  it 
rests.  What,  may  I  ax,  duz  de  letter  k  stan'  fur? 
Duz  it  stan'  for  cow?  Is  dare  a  pusson  in  dis  orgunce 
who  will  HP  his  head  and  dissert  that  k  stans  for 
cow  ?  Wall,  if  it  duzzent  stan'  for  cow,  is  it  a  far 
prejux  for  crow?  Would  a  cup  set  on  its  flatness, 
Mr.  Cheermon,  with  sich  a  handle  as  k  to  it?  Will 
the  gemmen  who  spells  klu  widout  a  1,  pertend  to 
spell  cat  widout  a  c  ?  I  persoom  not.  Wall,  then, 
my  feller-sitterzens,  if  k  duzzent  stan'  for  cow ;  if  it  is 
too  crooked  for  cup;  if  it  wooldn't  spell  crow  widout 
bein'  turned  wrong  side  foremos' ;  if  it  duzzent  suit 
the  gemmen's  noshuns of  cat;  an'  is  too  crooked  and 
not  crooked  enough  for  "  crooked,"  den  what,  may  I 


THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE  IN  COUNCIL.    IOI 

ax,  duz  dis  unekest  of  alfybetic  frenonymongs  outline 
wid  de  adumkate  purpyscruity.  If  it  am  eber  used 
as  de  forefix  fur  knife,  knot,  knob,  knock-under, 
and  sich  like,  it  ar'  bekase  its  crookedness  let  it 
out'n  de  rite  paf,  and  not  'kase  it  felt  called  on  in  de 
way  of  tendin'  to  its  own  bizness. 

But  no  diffunce  if  it  do  fail  in  oder  respex,  my 
feller-sitterzens,  it  won't  do  to  say  dat  dis  consum- 
mant  k  am  a  failure,  and  ostrumsize  it  from  de 
langwidge.  I  am  not  one  ob  dose  dat  am  commit- 
ted to  de  beleef  dat  it  am  a  bow-legged  nonjuscrip, 
a  onaccountable  freak  of  de  English  alfybet,  an' 
good  for  nuffin  but  to  lean  up  agin  more  spectifle 
consummants,  and  thow  de  lines  out'n  shape. 

An'  if  dat  be  de  sollum  trufe,  I  pauses  once  more 
to  ax  whar  is  de  stitch  in  de  temple  of  langwidge 
dat  dis  alfumbettycle  beformity  was  made  to  order  to 
fit  into,  so  to  speak.  What  ar'  its  mishun  in  de 
worl',  and  how  is  we  to  arrive  at  dat  pint.  In  diggin' 
about  de  roots  of  dis  boss  conundrum,  Mr.  Cheer- 
mon,  we  wants  to  have  nuffin  to  do  wid  scientif- 
ficle  reductions,  nor  logickle  abscraptions,  as  we 
understans  de  metumsquizzicle  bearin'  ob  dose 
terms ;  but,  on  de  oder  han',  if  the  court  am  ex- 
quainted  wid  her  own  diktum,  and  she  think  she 
do,  we  feels  bemooved  to  argify  strate  to  de  pint 
in  hand.  Now,  in  respex  to  de  consummant  before- 
sed,  I  taiks  de  hi  groun'  dat  if  dere  is  any  offis  dat  it 
can  fill  better  than  any  oder  consummant,  dat,  dat 
am  its  mishun.  Or  to  miscomterpret  my  persac 
9* 


IO2  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

meanin'  wid  more  purpyscruity,  if  dare  is  enny  spot 
in  de  presinks  of  de  langwidge  dat  can't  navumgate 
widout  it,  and  dat  it  can't  navumgate  widout,  dat, 
dat  am  de  shoo  fur  it  to  war.  Havin'  adjostled  dat 
pint  to  de  weakes'  understanding  we  nex'  inquire  if 
dere  is  enny  wurd  in  de  dickshummary  dat  can't  be 
spelt  into  a  syllumble  widout  de  ade  of  dis  consum- 
mant.  I  taix  it  upon  miself  to  say,  Mr.  Cheermon, 
dat  dere  is  such  a  word,  and  widout  enny  furder 
surcumloscrution,  or  bein'  too  pertickler  about  de 
orrytorrycal  effec  of  mere  metumsquorricle  figgurs 
of  speech,  I  will  perceed  to  denounce  it  in  your 
heerin'.  (Sotto  voce.)  Kill.  (A  pause,  followed  by 
a  lumbering  sound  and  the  disappearance  of  two 
woolly  crowns.) 

I  trus',  Mr.  Cheermon,  dat  dis  am  considered  no 
interbumption,  an'  if  enny  oder  brudder  should  feel 
discomposed  to  roll  off  de  bench  jurin  de  fudder  dis- 
continuance of  dese  remarks,  it  won't  be  tuk  as  no 
mark  of  misrespex  to  the  gemmen  who  has  de 
floor.  But,  to  rejerk  to  de  subjec'  in  han'.  De  bes' 
excepted,  and  de  only  excepted,  siggerfication  of  de 
consummant  k,  am  de  mistickle  wurd  just  de- 
nounced in  your  hearin',  and  I  shall  ax  you  to  squeeze 
dat  pint,  while  I  maix  a  rapid  sarch  over  dickshum- 
mary groun'  for  de  indecks  belongins  of  de  re- 
jineder  part  of  dis  word  klu,  dat  is,  de  con- 
summant 1,  and  de  avowal  u.  In  respex  to  de 
consummant  1,  I  would  wish  to  say  in  de  fust  place, 
fustly,  dat  the  mixtur'  of  learned  doubts  enterin' 


THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE  IN  COUNCIL.    IO3 

into  its  conjugation  am  not  near  so  obfusticatin'  as 
de  las'  beforesed,  an'  dat  havin"  obtaned  de  persac 
fractional  squantum  of  de  befogoin,  we  can,  as  it 
wur,  look  fowards  to  subsumquent  revolutions  of  de 
topic.  Darfore,  widout  enterin'  into  de  rejux  system 
of  argyfyin  fudder  dan  to  appli  de  rools  dat  was 
foun'  to  wurk  so  hamboniously  in  respex  to  de  las' 
named,  we  arrives  at  de  delusion  dat  de  mos'  ac- 
ceptumble  renderation  of  de  consummant  1  is  to  be 
foun'  in  de  mistickle  terms  lick,  licks,  and  "  lick 
'em,"  or  de  las'  beforesed  in  purtickler,  or  all  three 
in  purpentickler.  Now,  if  enny  brudder  whose 
sperience  and  obserwashun  am  purtickler  sensitiv 
on  dis  pint,  feels  cauled  upon  to  say  dat  de  most 
pinted  complication  of  dis  consummant  is  to  be  foun' 
in  de  word  "  lam,"  or  dat  it  was  made  to  order  for 
de  word  "  lash,"  or  was  put  into  de  alfumbet  wid 
special  reffermence  to  de  wurd  "  larrup,"  or  was 
made  out'n  whole  clof  as  a  prehitch  for  "  lambaste," 
I  will  'low  him  dat  privumlege,  and  widout  been 
outdone  in  dishonorableness,  will  give  him  de  floor 
when  I  discludes. 

In  pointrefax,  Mr.  Cheermon,  when  we  looks  at 
all  de  crosses  and  dotses  of  dis  argyment,  when  we 
sees  all  its  pros  and  cros,  de  delusion  am  forced 
upon  us,  rolus  bolus  (nolens  volens),  so  to  speak,  and 
in  de  langwidge  of  one  of  our  country's  most  illus- 
trious poicks,  "  Dat  do  settle  it" 

Havin'  foun'  den,  my  feller-sitterzens,  by  jiggerno- 
metrical  injuction,  de  persac  valyer  of  de  quantitums 


IO4  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

k  and  1  in  de  trombonial  k-l-u,  we  will  now  per- 
ceed  to  exburden  our  conshusness  of  sum  thoughts 
havin'  reffermence  to  de  avowal  u.  If  dat  which  needs 
no  splainin'  may  be  made  de  subjec*  of  splainatory 
logic,  widout  on  de  oder  han'  rejucin'  de  speaker  to 
de  distressin'  condishun  of  hyperbolus,  I  shall,  in  a 
brefe  space  of  time,  more  or  less,  egshibit  to  dis  or- 
gunce  de  close  anallumgy  dat  exists  betwixt  de 
avowal  u,  and  de  pussonal  pronoun  "  you."  I 
takes  it  for  granted,  Mr.  Cheermon,  dat  every  in- 
dividooal  dat  has  a  place  in  dis  orguss  resemblage, 
am  fermilliar,  either  by  "  hearsay"  or  "  theysay,"  wid 
dat  principul  of  de  Common  Law  dat  purvides  dat 
whar  wurds  are  to  be  miscomterpreted,  dat  de 
meanin'  is  to  be  fastened  onto  um  what  am  neares' 
at  han',  and  dat  if  dey  am  already  purvided  wid  a 
resonably  far  siggerfication,  dat  it  shall  be  onlawful 
to  prowl  off  in  sarch  of  one  what  soots  yer  better. 
Dat  pint  bein'  settled,  I  will  not  do  enny  gemmen  in 
dis  orgunce  de  misrespex  to  persoom  dat  if  a  Klu- 
Krux  wur  to  pint  a  six-bar'l  blunderbuss  under  his 
oil-factory  of  smell,  and  say  "  you,"  as  loud  and 
suddint  as  a  clap  of  armytillery,  dat  he  would  dis- 
clude  dat  he  meant  sum  odder  feller,  and  fail  to 
locomoshy  in  de  odder  direction.  Takin'  den,  my 
feller-sitterzens,  de  consummants  k  and  1  in  de  trom- 
bonial (trinomial)  k-l-u,  and  it  will  be  seen  dat  dey 
have  close  refermence  to  de  avowal  u,  and  visum 
versum,  and  dat  in  dese  three  alfumbettycle  cosines, 
and  de  mistickle  siggerfication  detached  to  each,  ar' 


THE  LOYAL  LEAGUE  IN  COUNCIL.    IO5 

de  whole  substanshuation  of  de  mystiffercation  of 
de  Klu-Krux-Klam. 

Den,  Mr.  Cheermon  and  feller-sitterzens,  if  dese 
be  de  mos'  obdurous  intenshuns  of  dose  rufifumlians, 
duz  it  not,  let  me  ax,  bemoove  this  loil  body  to 
take  immejit  steps  to  surcumvalidate,  deturrimerate, 
homswogglemerate,  and  murder-r-r  —  [This  expres- 
sion stuck  in  the  speaker's  throat,  for,  being  attracted 
from  the  up-stairs  of  his  eloquence  by  what  he  at 
first  mistook  for  an  outburst  of  enthusiasm  on  the 
part  of  his  hearers,  but  was  afterwards  induced  to 
believe  proceeded  from  some  more  serious  cause, 
he  looked  around  him  upon  great  waves  of  panic 
that  lashed  the  building  from'-  side  to  side  —  at  first 
converting  all  obstacles  into  a  causeway  for  their 
terror,  but  at  length  flowing  into  currents  that  beat 
strongest  where  the  drifts  of  wrecked  and  storm- 
tossed  furniture  formed  artificial  banks.  Having  the 
organ  of  comparison  well  developed  among  the 
other  faculties,  the  brain  of  the  statesman  took  in 
the  situation  at  once;  for,  observing  with  what  suc- 
cess doors  and  windows  were  swept  from  their 
moorings  at  the  heads  of  the  retreating  columns,  he 
saw  the  twenty  or  more  ghostly  embodiments  that 
occupied  his  rear  in  imagination  only,  and,  hesitating 
for  one  instant,  he  joined  the  assault  on  the  "  immi- 
nent breach,"  ballasting  his  flight  with  cries  that 
bore  a  marvellous  resemblance  to  the  changes  of 
which  the  last  word  of  the  "  befogoin  "  is  suscepti- 
ble. Reaching  a  neighboring  window  at  the  end 


IO6  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

of  two  vigorous  jumps,  he  passed  out  into  the 
night  —  a  distance  of  "eighteen  foot  in  the  clur," 
as  he  afterwards  testified — and  regaining  his  feet  and 
the  top  of  his  bent  simultaneously,  "the  startled  ear 
of  outer  darkness"  heard  something  like  the  report 
"  murder,"  at  brief  intervals  of  time  accommodated 
to  long  intervals  of  space,  for  about  the  period  em- 
ployed by  an  Erie  express  train  in  exhausting  a 
winter  horizon.] 


CHAPTER  XI. 

EFFECTS  PRODUCED.      A   PERIOD   OF  ALARM. 

Excitement  throughout  the  State  —  Scenes  at  the  Capitol  —  Metro- 
politan Arrests  resisted  —  Secret  Police  T—  Government  Officials 
Notified  of  the  Extent  of  the  Disaster  —  A  Quorum  of  the  Legisla- 
tive or  Judicial  Bodies  not  Attainable  —  No  Departures  from  the 
City  —  The  K.  K.  K.  Cabal  Receiving  that  Attention  from  Cau- 
cusing Legislators  which  its  Importance  Demanded — What  the 
State  Judiciary  Demanded  —  A  Mob  at  the  State-House — At  Sun- 
set the  Situation  Unchanged  —  A  Sortie  from  the  Capitol  —  Mobs 
along  the  Route  —  Seeking  Refuge  from  the  Excited  Populace  — 
Out  of  Danger  —  The  New  Situation  —  Governor  Brownlow  Escap- 
ing from  the  Temporary  Fortress  by  an  Alley-way  —  An  Ugly 
Specimen  of  the  Genus  Ku-Klux  —  The  Governor  Recovers  from 
the  Attitude  of  a  Suppliant  —  An  Amusing  Episode  —  "But  how 
many  suns,  O  Man,  would  look  upon  the  Deed  Unavenged?" — 
A  Canard  which  Grew  out  of  this  Affair. 

ON  the  day  following  the  grand  coup  de  main 
of  the  Ktan  to  which  we  have  directed  atten- 
tion in  the  previous  chapters,  and  which,  in  bringing 
depression  to  League  affairs,  sent  the  former's  mer- 
cury to  a  feverish  height,  great  excitement  prevailed 
throughout  the  State ;  and  at  the  business  centres, 
and  more  especially  the  capital,  something  like  a 
popular  demonstration  greeted  the  arrival  of  news 
from  provincial  quarters.  The  wires  had  been  buz- 
zing with  intelligence  of  the  disaster  since  early 

107 


IO8  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

dawn,  and  yet  the  news  and  telegraph  offices  found 
it  impossible  to  throw  off  the  steaming  bulletins 
giving  additional  particulars,  or  summing  up  the  his- 
tory of  the  exploit  in  localities  already  heard  from, 
with  sufficient  speed  to  meet  the  cravings  of  the 
multitude.  The  streets  of  the  capital  were  filled 
with  passengers,  who,  with  white  faces  and  lips  com- 
pressed, seemed  as  firmly  intent  on  reaching  some 
point  of  general  rendezvous  as  it  was  indubitably 
certain  that  they  had  nothing  definite  in  view,  but 
were  tossed  to  and  fro  by  a- burning  thirst  for  news 
that  must  and  would  not  be  satisfied.  Occasionally, 
as  the  crowd  kept  this  frantic  pace,  individuals  would 
suffer  themselves  buttonholed,  and  made  the  subjects 
of  lengthy  confidences,  but  rarely,  as  one,  man's 
property  in  the  commodity  of  the  hour  was  some- 
thing which  all  might  share  at  the  bulletin-board ; 
and  so  all  day  long  the  human  tides  ebbed  and 
flowed  along  the  news-channels,  never  manifesting 
impatience,  but  ever  quickening  their  speed  to  keep 
pace  with  the  now  fairly  excited  messengers.  Mer- 
chants and  shop-keepers  stood  in  their  doors  wear- 
ing prurient  countenances,  and  anon,  sending  would- 
be  purchasers  away  with  curt  replies ;  for  since  the 
sun  rose  on  that  eventful  morn,  had  not  traffic  grown 
out'of  fashion  ?  Women  and  children  kept  within 
doors  without  commands  to  that  effect,  for  there 
was  something  in  the  very  air  of  the  crowds  without 
that  not  only  did  not  invite  confidence,  but  positively 
frowned  upon  all  advances  thereto.  The  Metropoli- 


EFFECTS    PRODUCED. 

tan  guards,  who  had  special  instructions,  and  whose 
force  had  been  doubled  since  morning,  moved  along 
their  beats  wearing  grave  countenances,  and  occa- 
sionally scanning  the  faces  of  the  crowd  with  furtive 
stare,  as  if  in  search  of  some  secret  which  they  half 
suspected  lay  hidden  there.  Once  they  ventured 
upon  an  arrest,  being  guided  by  their  suspicions 
only,  as  was  evident  from  their  embarrassed  move- 
ments ;  but  though  they  employed  a  strong  guard, 
and  sought  out  the  most  thinly  peopled  avenues  in 
making  away  with  their  prisoner,  they  had  not  pro- 
ceeded above  two  blocks  before  they  were  set  upon 
by  the  crowd,  and  compelled  not  only  to  relinquish 
their  charge,  but  to  seek  safety  in  flight.  It  was 
even  whispered  that  there  was  a  secret  police  force 
abroad,  deriving  its  authority  from  the  opposition 
element  in  politics  ;  but  this  was  industriously  denied 
in  quarters  where  the  facts  should  have  been  known, 
and  after  it  became  a  rumor,  every  effort  was  made 
to  quell  suspicion.  But,  however  that  may  have 
been,  after  the  unsuccessful  feint  to  which  we  have 
called  attention,  no  further  effort  was  made  to  inter- 
fere with  the  calm-faced  crowds  which,  looking 
neither  to  the  right  nor  left,  persevered  in  that  un- 
varying procession  which  led  them  to  and  from  the 
news  centres.  A  K.  K.  K.  placard,  which  had  been 
posted  at  a  popular  street  corner  during  the  previous 
night,  and  which,  for  contrasted  reasons,  had  been 
given  a  wide  berth  by  the  rival  factions,  became,  as 
the  evening  wore  along,  the  one  subject  which 


IIO  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

seemed  to  possess  sufficient  interest  to  attract  the 
regards  of  passers-by,  and  it  is  probable  that  its  im- 
portance (like  some  sentient  wonders  that  we  wot 
of)  was  derived  from  the  circumstance  of  its  connec- 
tion with  weightier  subjects. 

It  was  probably  past  the  hour  of  noon  before  the 
extent  of  the  Ku-Klux  raid  was  certainly  known  to 
the  State  authorities,  and  to  say  that  the  intelligence 
cast  a  palpable  gloom  over  the  various  departments 
of  government,  would  hardly  particularize  the  situa- 
tion with  that  definiteness  which  the  curiosity  of  the 
reader  may  demand.  After  the  noon  recess  it  was 
found  impossible  to  assemble  a  quorum  of  either 
the  legislative  or  judicial  functionaries,  and  when 
visitors  sought  individuals  belonging  to  these  branch- 
es, with  a  view  to  conference  on  private  topics, 
they  were,  oftener  than  not,  sent  away  with  the 
intelligence  that  they  had  left  the  city.  But  this 
was  scarcely  true  in  any  case,  for  not  only  was  there 
no  hegira  of  State  officers  from  the  scene  of  their 
labors  on  this  day,  but  out-bound  trains  flew  along 
the  landscapes  with  hardly  any  reasonable  ballast  in 
the  way  of  passengers.  The  secret  of  the  whole 
business,  as  revealed  soon  after,  showed  that  some 
very  extensive  caucusing  was  being  done,  and  that 
the  K.  K..K.  cabal,  for  the  first  time  in  its  history, 
was  receiving  that  attention  from  the  government 
authorities  which  -its  importance  demanded.  It  is 
not  known  with  certainty  what  was  resolved  upon 
at  these  meetings,  but  it  may  be  guessed,  with  toler- 


EFFECTS    PRODUCED.  Ill 

able  assurance,  that  those  bold  measures  soon  after- 
wards instituted  in  the  House  (though  enterpnsed 
too  late  for  any  practical  use)  received  their  inspi- 
ration from  this  excited  period.  And  it  was  soon 
after  published  as  an  item  of  news,  that  the  judiciary 
demanded  of  their  law-making  colleagues  some  im- 
mediate legislation  that  would  enable  them  to  grapple 
with  the  new  problem  in  jurisprudence  which  the 
movement  presented. 

About  the  middle  of  the  afternoon  there  was  a 
popular  demonstration  in  the  neighborhood  of  the 
capitol,  the  crowds  lounging  in  that  direction  in  an 
objectless  kind  of  way,  but  when,  finding  themselves 
under  the  shadow  of  the  great  building,  developing 
a  sudden  enthusiasm  for  something,  or  some  indi- 
vidual, they  scarce  knew  what.  For  more  than  an 
hour  they  besieged  the  State  functionaries  with  loud 
huzzahs,  and  only  when  they  saw  that  the  demon- 
stration had  been  misunderstood,  or  that  they  would 
be  given  the  cold  shoulder,  in  any  event,  did  they 
relinquish  the  purpose  of  hearing  some  report  from 
their  law-givers,  and  being  heard  in  return.  But 
when  the  countermarch  movement  began,  very  lit- 
tle time  was  consumed  by  the  crowd  in  transporting 
itself  out  of  sight  and  hearing — '  individuals,  and 
especially  those  who  had  been  conspicuous  in  the 
movement,  walking  hurriedly,  and  with  their  heads 
down,  as  if  to  conceal  an  expression  of  chagrin  that 
lurked  in  their  countenances. 

At  sunset  the  situation  was  unchanged,  the  main 


112  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

streets  emptying  themselves  of  their  human  cur- 
rents, in  obedience  to  some  suburban  attraction  at 
intervals,  only  to  be  filled  next  hour  with  the  chaf- 
fering multitudes,  who  resumed  their  fatuous  pursuit 
of  the  unknown  quantity  in  the  news-problem  with 
the  same  heat  that  it  had  been  undertaken  in  the 
early  portion  of  the  day.  It  was  at  this  precise 
hour  that  the  Governor  was  observed  to  leave  the 
State-house,  accompanied  by  two  gentlemen  of  his 
staff,  and  walk  hurriedly  along  Cedar  Street,  in 
the  direction  of  the  public  square.  The  crowds 
seemed  determined  to  place  their  own  interpretation 
on  this  movement,  and  having  assembled  in  large 
force  at  the  point  where  College  street  intersects 
that  along  which  the  party  were  passing,  loud  hoot- 
ings  were  indulged  in,  and  in  forcing  a  passage 
through  the  crowd,  the  obnoxious  individuals  sub- 
jected to  rougher  jostling  than  was  thought  to  be 
required  by  the  emergency.  Turning  to  reply  to 
some  taunt  volunteered  from  the  crowd,  one  of  the 
gentlemen  lost  his  hat  by  a  blow  from  behind,  and 
was  deprived  of  the  gratification  which  he  might 
otherwise  have  received  upon  relieving  himself  of  a 
few  sentences  of  eloquent  invective,  by  a  storm  of 
derisive  cheers,  which  drowned  every  other  sound. 
At  the  next  crossing  the  demonstration  was  equally 
as  large,  if  not  so  aggressive,  and  when  the  official 
trio  reached  a  neighboring  building,  and  immured 
themselves  within  its  walls,  they  doubtless  looked 
back  upon  the  reminiscence  with  feelings  of  relief. 


EFFECTS    PRODUCED.  113 

But  from  after  developments,  it  may  be  inferred 
that  they  had  no  sooner  felt  themselves  exempt  from 
the  perils  which  had  lately  beset  them,  than  they 
entered  upon  a  conference  to  devise  ways  and  means 
of  escape  from  their  temporary  fortress  (for  such 
the  building  in  which  they  had  taken  refuge  proved 
to  be).  This  would  not  have  been  difficult  of  accom- 
plishment, in  any  event,  and  the  tactics  resolved 
upon  by  the  besieged  rendered  it  comparatively 
easy  of  attainment. 

In  less  than  ten  minutes  the  throngs,  who  had  as- 
sembled with  no  more  serious  object  in  view  than  to 
gratify  an  idle  curiosity,  and  express  their  unfriend- 
liness to  their  taskmasters  by  the  methods  usually 
adopted,  had  been  taken  up  by  the  absorbent  elements 
of  the  crowd  flowing  newsward,  and  were  no  more. 
If  the  Governor's  party  had  expected  resistance  of  this 
character,  they  were  to  be  deceived,  for  by  the  time 
the  lamps  were  lighted,  almost  a  calm  pervaded  that 
quarter;  and  when,  a  few  moments  later,  the  first  of 
the  party  (who  proved  to  be  Governor  Brownlow)  left 
the  building  by  a  postern-gate  in  the  rear,  he  was 
seen  by  none  but  'the  spies  who  had  been  set  to 
watch.  Hurrying  along  an  alleyway,  the  honorable 
refugee  had  crossed  two  squares  ere  he  emerged 
upon  the  broad  street  which  led  across  an  unfre- 
quented portion  of  the  city,  to  the  vicinity  of  the 
mansion  which  he  occupied.  Halting  here  to  recon- 
noitre and  indulge  a  moment  of  quiet  reflection,  after 
the  exciting  events  through  which  he  had  passed,  he 
10*  H 


114  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

was  suddenly  encountered  by  a  form  of  the  peril 
from  which  he  was  seeking  to  escape  that  had  more 
than  once  been  suggested  to  his  fancy,  but  which 
now  presented  itself  in  such  palpable  outline,  and 
with  an  attitude  so  positively  menacing,  that  his 
courage  forsook  him  for  the  moment,  and  he  recov- 
ered from  the  manner  of  a  suppliant  just  in  time  to 
save  himself  from  a  very  humiliating  scene.  The 
thing  in  question  was  an  ugly  and  even  frightful  em- 
bodiment of  the  genus  Ku-Klux,  which,  having  been 
successful  in  its  contemplated  surprise,  was  very  nat- 
urally disposed  to  dictate  terms  to  its  victim.  As  no 
violence  was  intended,  it  had  time,  however,  for  but 
a  few  tragic  sentences,  adopted  from  a  repertory  pre- 
pared for  the  occasion,  before  the  frightened  official 
had  recovered  his  wits  and  his  Greek. 

Raising  himself  to  his  full  stature,  the  Governor 
denied  the  assumed  ghostliness  of  his  interlocutor  in 
these  precise  words  :  "  Do  you  not  know,  fiend,  that  I 
possess  the  authority  to  have  you  shot  or  hung,  and 
that  I  am  strongly  persuaded  to  exercise  it  ?  " 

To  which  the  "fiend"  retorted  in  the  following 
laconism  :  "  But  how  many  suns,  O  man !  would  look 
upon  the  deed  unavenged  ?  "  and  realizing  that  they 
were  quits,  the  parties  to  this  amusing  by-comedy 
went  their  respective  ways. 

The  report  of  this  transaction  reaching  the  public 
ear  via  the  sensation-mongers,  a  few  hours  later,  it 
was  taken  up  in  its  amended  form  and  bandied  about 
the  coffee-houses  and  street-corner  gatherings  until 


EFFECTS    PRODUCED.  11$ 

it  finally  lost  all  proportions,  and  at  nine  o'clock, 
precisely,  was  guilty  of  sending  an  old  gentleman  to 
bed,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city,  under  the  conviction 
that  Governor  Brownlow  had  been  murdered  by  the 
Ku-Klux. 

But  though  for  twenty  hours  her  streets  had 
flowed  with  lava  tides  of  that  wild  element  of  which 
mobs  are  made,  and  whatsoever  was  leonine  in  her 
temperament  had  been  appealed  to  by  rumors  of  war, 
that  rode  past  on  every  breeze,  somewhere  in  the 
"  wee  sma'  hours  ayont  the  twal,"  the  last  star  had 
paled  in  the  news'  firmament  without  witnessing  any- 
thing more  tragical  'than  may  be  found  among  the 
occurrences  related  in  this  chapter,  and  the  tired 
city  slept. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

KU-KLUX    HORRORS    IN    TENNESSEE. 

The  Klan  Outlawed  —  A  Price  set  upon  the  Heads  of  its  Member- 
ship — A  Rash  Act  of  one  of  its  Dens  —  Strong  Provocations  — 
Negro  Insurrectionists  Placed  in  the  Jail  at  Trenton  —  Prisoners 
Wrested  from  the  County  Authorities  by  Two  Hundred  Men  Dis- 
guised as  Ku-Klux  —  Subsequent  Massacre  —  Detectives  in  Pur- 
suit—  Members  of  the  Order  Indicted  —  Efforts  to  Convict  the 
Accused  —  Failure  of  Prosecution  —  Affair  in  Obion  —  Why  these 
Horrors  are  Classed  as  Twin  Editions  —  Description  of  Madrid 
Bend  —  K.  K.  K.  Transactions  in  this  Remote  Quarter  —  Planters' 
Jealousy  —  Message  from  Mr.  J.  to  the  Leaders  of  the  Party  — 
Cool  Treatment  it  Received  —  The  K.'s  Declare  their  Intention 
of  Punishing  one  of  the  Laborers  on  J.'s  Farm  '—  His  Defiance  — 
Arming  the  Blacks  —  A  Fierce  Skirmish  —  J.'s  Flight  —  Massacre 
of  Fleeing  Blacks  —  Eight  Colored  Men  taken  from  the  County  Jail 
at  Troy  —  Their  Fate  a  Mystery. 

IN  Tennessee,  where  the  Klan  took  the  form  of 
a  political  party,  which  bitterly  antagonized  the 
Brownlow  administration  in  every  issue  of  govern- 
ment, the  principles  which  it  supported  (despite  the 
bad  qualities  inherent  in  its  organization)  gave  it  a 
success  altogether  unproportioned  to  the  means  em- 
ployed. Notwithstanding  it  was  outlawed  by  act  of 
the  Legislature,  and  a  price  set  upon  the  heads  of 
its  membership,  it  continued  to  flourish  long  after 
Brownlowism  had  ceased  to  be  an  element  in  the 

116 


KU-KLUX    HORRORS    IN    TENNESSEE. 

politics  of  the  State.  But,  after  a  comparatively  un- 
eventful history  during  the  years  which  intervened, 
in  the  summer  of  1874  a  rash  act  of  one  of  its  Dens, 
located  in  Gibson  county,  in  the  western  portion  of 
the  State,  operated  such  a  loss  of  influence  to  the 
body  throughout  the  State,  that  it  at  once  became 
ineffective ;  and  here,  in  the  autumn  of  this  year,  the 
latest  remnant  of  the  organization  on  Southern  soil 
fell  into  disintegration,  and  ceased  to  exist. 

A  brief  history  of  this  transaction  may  prove  not 
uninteresting  to  the  reader,  as  it  was  one  of  the  most 
daring  and  venal  of  all  the  acts  of  these  regulators, 
and  influenced  national  affairs  as  has  no  other  local 
event  within  the  present  century.  In  a  remote  set- 
tlement in  the  eastern  portion  of  this  county,  a  party 
of  negroes  had  organized  themselves  into  a  military 
company,  which  not  only  conducted  night  drills  and 
made  occasional  raids  into  the  surrounding  settle- 
ments, but  threatened  that  at  no  distant  day  they 
would  devastate  the  neighboring  country,  and  prove 
the  heralds  of  an  insurrection  that  would  give  the 
Southern  country  into  the  hands  of  their  race.  The 
whites  in  the  immediate  vicinity  bore  their  midnight 
levies  with  tolerable  resignation,  and  would,  doubt- 
less, have  dismissed  their  taunts  as  meaningless,  if 
these  had  not  been  supported  by  acts  which  left  no 
doubt  as  to  the  warlike  quality  of  their  designs. 
They  had  proceeded  so  far  as  to  procure  arms  and 
ammunition,  and  nominate  a  day  for  the  threatened 
outbreak  before  any  interference  was  attempted,  and 


Il8  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

when  this  was  finally  resolved  upon,  it  was  effected 
quietly  by  arresting  some  of  the  more  prominent 
conspirators  at  their  homes.  These  parties  were 
incarcerated  in  the  county  jail  at  Trenton,  and 
though  the  feeling  of  indignation  ran  high  in  every 
portion  of  the  county,  it  is  believed  that  a  resolu- 
tion to  drop  the  subject  here,  or  submit  to  such 
meagre  satisfaction  as  it  was  in  the  power  of  the 
courts  to  render  in  such  cases,  was  general.  Such 
peaceful  and  eminently  wise  counsels  were  not  to 
prevail,  however,  and  on  the  night  succeeding  that 
upon  which  these  prisoners  had  been  committed  to 
the  county  authorities  for  safe  keeping,  a  large  body 
of  men  (estimated  at  from  two  to  three  hundred), 
disguised  as  Ku-Klux,  rode  into  the  town,  and  laying 
siege  to  the  jail,  soon  effected  their  object  of  taking 
from  thence  the  alleged  insurrectionists.  In  view 
of  the  formidable  force  employed,  no  resistance 
was  offered,  and  the  prisoners,  being  tied  securely  on 
horses,  which  had  been  provided  for  that  purpose, 
were  placed  at  the  head  of  the  column  and  con- 
ducted six  miles  from  Trenton  in  an  easterly  direc- 
tion. Here  a  parley  was  called,  and  some  dispute 
arising  as  to  what  disposition  should  be  made  of 
the  prisoners,  they  were  commanded  to  make  their 
escape,  and  at  the  same  instant  fired  upon,  the  volley 
being  repeated  twice.  Of  the  company  of  ten  who 
were  commended  to  this  terrible  fate,  two  were 
killed  outright,  two  were  badly  wounded,  and  the 
remainder  (disappointing  the  wishes  of  their  captors, 


KU-KLUX     HORRORS     IN    TENNESSEE.       I  IQ 

it  is  thought),  made  good  their  escape.  The  news 
of  this  event  spread  rapidly,  and  as  it  met  with 
almost  universal  condemnation,  a  vigorous  pursuit 
was  organized,  and  every  effort  which  a  thoroughly 
aroused  and  indignant  community  would  be  likely 
to  employ,  undertaken  to  discover  and  arrest  the 
perpetrators.  Knowing  that  disaffection  had  ex- 
isted among  the  raiders,  and  a  large  portion,  if  not 
a  majority  of  their  number,  had  refused  to  partici- 
pate in  the  massacre,  this  clew  was  adopted  by  the 
authorities,  and  a  detective  force  employed,  which 
it  was  thought  could  not  fail  of  success.  Several 
days  were  consumed  in  the  pursuit  and  investigation, 
and  at  the  end  of  that  time  it  was  announced  that 
one  of  the  party  had  become  "  State's  witness,"  and 
that  a  full  expose  of  the  affair  would  follow. 

The  faith  that  was  reposed  in  this  story  shows 
how  unequal  was  the  estimate  which  the  State 
authorities  placed  upon  the  resources  and  influence 
of  their  secret  enemy,  and  how  illy  adapted  to  the 
ends  in  view  was  the  machinery  of  prosecution  em- 
ployed by  the  courts  in  this  and  similar  causes. 
The  party  who  had  professed  a  willingness  to  betray 
his  associates  in  this  affair  could  only  be  prevailed 
upon  to  embrace  a  very  small  number  in  the  accusa- 
tions he  made,  and,  at  the  subsequent  trial,  com- 
pletely failed  to  sustain  the  points  of  the  indictment 
which  had  been  founded  on  his  sworn  admissions. 

The  arrests  were  made,  however,  and  after  a  long 
and  tedious  contest  between  the  State  and  Federal 


I2O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

courts,  regarding  the  subject  of  their  jurisdiction  — - 
which  could  not  fail  to  prove  advantageous  to  the 
accused  — the  trial,  or  something  which  bore  a  re- 
semblance thereto,  was  proceeded  wjth.  Viewing 
the  resources  of  the  two  parties  to  the  presentment, 
and  the  efforts  put  forth  by  each,  it  could  not  have 
been  a  success  on  any  terms,  and,  under  the  existing 
conditions,  proved  a  judicial  farce  of  the  first  mag- 
nitude. The  negroes  who  had  made  their  escape 
from  the  scerte  of  the  massacre,  and  who  had  held 
out  promises  that  they  could  identify  their  would-be 
lynchers,  failed  to  meet  the  tests  which  were  im- 
posed at  the  trial ;  and  the  State's  witness,  mainly 
relied  upon,  either  could  not,  or  would  not,  crimi- 
nate his  associates  beyond  a  few  general  statements, 
that  would  not  have  justified  even  a  partial  verdict. 
After  a  lengthy  trial,  pending  which  the  State  au- 
thorities put  forth  their  utmost  exertions  to  estab- 
lish the  guilt  of  the  accused,  it  was  announced  that 
an  alibi  had  been  proven  in  each  case ;  and  so  ended 
the  Gibscn  county  horror. 

In  Obion,  a  county  adjoining  Gibson  on  the  west, 
the  details  of  even  a  bloodier  affair  than  that  re- 
counted above  were  given  to  the  public  a  few 
years  earlier,  but  which,  for  some  reason,  never 
found  its  way  into  the  courts.  We  give  the  outlines 
in  this  place,  because  these  horrors,  in  view  of  the 
locus  in  quo,  will  always  be  classed  as  twin  editions 
in  future  histories  of  the  Ku-Klux  riots. 

In  what  is  known  as  Madrid  Bend,  a  peninsular 
territory  formed  by  a  curve  in  the  Mississippi  River 


KU-KLUX    HORRORS    IN    TENNESSEE.       121 

at  its  junction  with  Reelfoot  Lake  (which  occupies 
the  rear  of  the  district),  are  situated  a  number  of 
large  farms,  supporting  hundreds  of  negro  laborers , 
and  here,  as  might  have  been  expected,  that  doctrine 
of  cause  and  effect,  inversely  applied,  to  which  we 
have  referred  in  a  previous  chapter,  had  its  perfect 
work.  On  such  soil  the  K.  K.  K.  vine  could  not 
fail  to  prosper ;  and  accordingly,  at  an  early  day,  a 
Den  was  organized,  which  soon  afterwards  took  upon 
itself  the  duty  of  regulating  the  affairs  of  the  little 
kingdom.  Loyal  League  meetings  were  broken  up ; 
carpet-baggers  were  requested  to  skip  on  brief  no- 
tice ;  the  enfranchised  masses  were  not  permitted  to 
vote  too  early,  nor  too  often ;  but,  what  is  sincerely 
to  be  regretted  by  the  honest  historian,  called  upon 
to  chronicle  these  events,  and  the  law-loving  public 
at  large,  matters  did  not  stop  here.  The  weird 
brotherhood  went  further  still,  in  enforcing  their 
ideas  of  good  government,  and  were  wont,  at  those 
periods  of  the  "  calm,  still  night "  when  the  queen 
of  its  realm  did  not  exercise  her  beams  too  freely, 
to  visit  the  neighboring  farms,  and,  at  the  end  of 
the  lash,  admjnister  lessons  in  morals,  social  polity, 
etc.  The  "  man  and  brother  "  was  not  permitted  to 
offend  in  too  palpable  breaches  of  morals,  even  on 
his  own  territory,  and  certain  home  duties  were 
strictly  enjoined  upon  him.  These  ex  cathedra  per- 
formances proceeded  in  fact  to  great  lengths,  and 
naturally  gave  dissatisfaction  to  the  controllers  of 
the  farming  interests  in  the  Bend, 
ii 


122  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

One  of  these,  whom  we  shall  designate  as  Mr.  J., 
a  large  proprietor,  who  felt  himself  particularly  out- 
raged, in  view  of  the  fact  that  his  farm  had  been 
several  times  visited  in  this  clandestine  manner, 
finally  protested,  and  signified  to  those  whom  he 
regarded  as  the  leaders  of  the  movement  his  per- 
fect ability  to  control  his  own  affairs.  No  reply  was 
made  at  the  time,  but  not  long  after  this  one  of  the 
negro  laborers  on  J.'s  farm  had  the  misfortune  to 
commit  a  misdemeanor  amenable  to  severe  punish- 
ment under  the  K.  K.  K.  code,  and  it  soon  after 
became  apparent  that  the  neighborhood  Den  would 
adopt  the  usual  plan  in  meting  out  justice  to  the 
offender.  Upon  receiving  this  intelligence,  J.,  seeirfg 
that  his  authority  was  not  only  set  at  nought,  but 
defied,  became  enraged,  and  notified  the  parties  that 
they  must  proceed  at  their  peril,  as  he  would  arm 
the  negroes  on  his  plantation,  and  lead  them  in  an 
effort  to  resist  the  proposed  attack.  Unawed  by 
this  proclamation,  the  Klan  made  its  dispositions, 
and  at  about  twelve  o'clock  on  the  night  designated, 
appeared  on  the  scene.  A  fierce  skirmish  ensued, 
as  was  to  have  been  expected.  The  negroes  had 
not  only  been  fully  equipped,  as  their  employer  had 
threatened,  but  were  stationed  behind  barricades, 
with  which  their  wooden  houses  were  lined,  and 
hence  fought  to  the  best  advantage.  The  attacking 
party,  on  the  other  hand,  was  compelled  to  occupy 
open  ground,  and  so  far  from  being  shielded  by  the 
darkness,  the  relative  situation  of  the  parties  ad- 
judged that  circumstance  favorable  to  the  enemy. 


KU-KLUX    HORRORS    IN    TENNESSEE.       123 

The  combat  was  a  brief  one,  and  under  the  condi- 
tions which  they  were  forced  to  accept,  could  not 
have  resulted  favorably  to  the  besiegers.  They 
finally  withdrew,  having  had  one  man  killed  and 
three  wounded  in  this  ill-advised  affair.  The  ne- 
groes, on  their  part,  suffered  no  loss  whatever. 

But  the  end  was  not  yet,  and  while  fortune  favored 
the  cause  of  the  resisting  faction  in  the  skirmish  of 
which  we  have  given  brief  particulars,  they  must 
have  realized,  from  their  knowledge  of  their  sur- 
roundings, that  the  blood  which  had  been  shed 
would  be  required  at  their  hands.  The  scene,  more- 
over, was  remote  from  any  garrisoned  point  whence 
they  might  have  received  aid  from  government 
troops  in  the  event  that  the  attack  was  renewed. 

The  news  of  the  affair,  as  was  to  have  been  ex- 
pected, spread  rapidly,  and  as  great  excitement 
ensued,  J.,  feeling  the  insecurity  of  his  position,  fled 
by  steamer  to  Memphis,  at  the  same  time  counsel- 
ling the  negroes  to  place  themselves  under  the 
protection  of  the  authorities.  Troy,  the  seat  of 
justice  of  Obion,  was  distant  from  the  scene  of 
rencontre  about  twenty  miles,  and  thither,  at  an 
early  hour  of  the  day,  the  negroes,  adopting  by- 
paths and  unfrequented  routes,  turned  their  steps. 
But  despite  the  precautions  against  discovery  which 
they  adopted,  their  movements  were  closely  spied, 
and  before  they  had  proceeded  many  miles  a  large 
force  of  their  enemies  was  in  pursuit.  Riding  at  a 
break-neck  speed,  the  pursuing  party  gained  on 
them  rapidly,  and  as  they  kept  out  flankers,  in  order 


124  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

that  none  of  the  party  might  be  overran  and  thus 
suffered  to  escape,  ten  of  the  refugees  were  over- 
taken and  put  to  death  ere  the  raiders  were  warned 
that  they  were  trespassing  too  far  on  neutral  ter- 
ritory. 

Eight  of  the  eighteen  succeeded  in  reaching 
Troy,  and  at  their  request  were  placed  in  jail,  and 
a  strong  guard  detailed  for  their  protection.  Even 
these  extraordinary  precautions,  however,  proved 
unavailing,  and  on  the  first  night  of  their  incarcera- 
tion a  large  force  of  disguised  men  invested  the 
prison,  and  having  intimidated  the  guard,  carried 
them  away  prisoners.'  Further  than  this,  no  report 
has  ever  been  given  of  the  affair,  but  it  may  be 
guessed,  with  tolerable  assurance,  that  they  shared 
the  fate  of  their  companions. 

This  affair  created  a  profound  sensation  through- 
out the  entire  country,  and  to  it,  as  much  as  any  other 
single  deed  of  the  night-riders,  are  due  those  prompt 
measures  on  the  part  of  the  general  and  State  gov- 
ernments which  operated  as  such  an  emphatic  check 
on  their  movements.  Soon  after  this  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  passed  a  law  virtually  outlaw- 
ing the  body;  and  later,  in  view  of  certain  phases  of 
the  subject  which  best  adapted  it  to  the  special 
legislation  of  which  they  were  capable,  relegated 
the  question  to  the  State  governments,  reserving 
only  the  right  to  adjudicate  such  causes  where 
States  were  indisposed  to  afford  their  citizens  ade- 
quate protection. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

KU-KLUX    LAW. 

Any  person,  under  color  of  law,  etc.,  of  any  State,  depriving  another 
of  any  rights,  etc.,  secured  by  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States,  made  liable  to  the  party  injured,  7034 — Penalty  for  con- 
spiring, by  force,  to  put  down  the  government  of  the  United  States, 
etc.,  7035 — Conspirator's  doing,  etc.,  any  act  in  furtherance  of  the 
object  of  the  conspiracy,  and  injuring  another,  liable  to  damages 
therefor,  7035  — What  to  be  deemed  a  denial  by  any  State  to  any 
class  of  its  people  of  their  equal  protection  under  the  laws,  7036 — 
What  unlawful  combination  to  be  deemed  a  rebellion  against  the 
government  of  the  United  States  (obsolete),  7037 — Certain  persons 
not  to  be  jurors  in  certain  cases,  7038  —  Jurors  to  take  oath;  false 
swearing,  in  taking  this  oath,  to  be  perjury,  7038  —  Any  person 
knowing  that  certain  wrongs  are  about  to  be  done,  and  having 
power  to  prevent,  etc.,  neglects  so  to  do,  and  any  such  wrong  is 
done,  is  made  liable  for  all  damages  caused  thereby,  7039. 

Act  of  the  Congress  of  the  United  States.  An  Act 
to  enforce  the  provisions  of  the  Fourteenth  Amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  and 
for  other  purposes. 

ART.  7034.  [i.]  Any  person,  who,  under  color  of 
any  law,  statute,  ordinance,  regulation,  custom, 
or  usage  of  any  State,  shall  subject,  or  cause  to  be 
subjected,  any  person  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the 
United  States,  to  the  deprivation  of  any  rights,  privi- 
leges, or  immunities,  secured  by  the  Constitution  of 
ii*  125 


126  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

the  United  States,  shall,  any  such  law,  statute,  ordi- 
nance, regulation,  custom,  or  usage  of  the  State  to 
the  contrary,  notwithstanding,  be  liable  to  the  party 
injured  in  any  action  at  law,  suit  in  equity,  or  other 
proceeding  for  redress  ;  such  proceeding  to  be  pros- 
ecuted in  the  several  district  or  circuit  courts  of  the 
United  States,  with,  and  subject  to  the  same  rights 
of  appeal,  review  upon  error,  and  other  remedies 
provided  in  like  cases,  in  such  courts  under  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Act  of  the  pth  of  April,  eighteen 
hundred  and  sixty-six,  entitled  "An  Act  to  protect 
all  persons  in  the  United  States  in  their  civil  rights, 
and  to  furnish  the  means  of  their  vindication,"  and 
the  other  remedial  laws  of  the  United  States  which 
are,  in  their  nature,  applicable  in  such  cases. 

ART.  7035.  [2.]  (i.)  If  two  or  more  persons  with- 
in any  State  or  Territory  of  the  United  States,  shall 
conspire  together  to  overthrow,  or  to  put  down,  or 
to  destroy  by  force  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  or  to  levy  war  against  the  United  States,  or  to 
oppose,  by  force,  the  authority  of  the  government 
of  the  United  States,  or  by  force,  intimidation,  or 
threat,  to  prevent,  hinder,  or  delay  the  execution  of 
any  law  of  the  United  States,  or  by  force  to  seize, 
take,  or  possess  any  property  of  the  United  States, 
contrary  to  the  authority  thereof,  or  by  force,  intimi- 
dation, or  threat,  to  prevent  any  person  from  accept- 
ing or  holding  any  office  of  trust,  or  place  of 
confidence,  under  the  United  States,  or  from  dis- 
charging the  duties  thereof,  or  by  force,  intimida- 


KU-KLUX    LAW.  127 

tion,  or  threat,  to  induce  any  officer  of  the  United 
States  to  leave  any  State,  district,  or  place  where 
his  duties,  as  such  officer  might  lawfully  be  -per- 
formed, or  to  injure  him  in  his  person  or  property 
on  account  of  his  lawful  discharge  of  the  duties  of 
his  office,  or  to  injure  his  person  while  engaged  in 
the  lawful  discharge  of  the  duties  of  his  office,  or  to 
injure  his  property,  so  as  to  molest,  interrupt,  hinder, 
or  impede  him  in  the  discharge  of  his  official  duty, 
or  by  force,  intimidation,  or  threat,  to  deter  any 
party  or  witness  in  any  court  of  the  United  States 
from  attending  such  court,  or  from  testifying  in  any 
matter  pending  in  such  court,  fully,  freely,  and  truth- 
fully, or  to  injure  any  such  party  or  witness,  in  his 
person  or  property,  on  account  of  his  so  having 
attended  or  testified,  or  by  force,  intimidation,  or 
threat  to  influence  the  verdict,  presentment,  or  in- 
dictment of  any  juror  or  grand  juror,  in  any  court 
of  the  United  States,  or  to  injure  such  juror  in  his 
person  or  property,  on  account  of  any  verdict,  pre- 
sentment, or  indictment,  lawfully  assented  to  by  him, 
or  on  account  of  his  being  or  having  been  such 
juror,  or  shall  conspire  together,  or  go  in  disguise 
upon  the  public  highway,  or  upon  the  premises  of 
another  for  the  purpose,  either  directly  or  indirectly, 
of  depriving  any  person  or  class  of  persons  of  the 
equal  protection  of  the  laws,  or  of  equal  privileges 
or  immunities  under  the  laws,  or  for  the  purpose  of 
preventing  or  hindering  the  constituted  authorities 
of  any  State  from  giving  or  securing  to  all  persons 


128  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

within  such  State  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws, 
or  shall  conspire  together  for  the  purpose  of  in  any 
manner  impeding,  obstructing,  hindering,  or  defeat- 
ing the  due  course  of  justice  in  any  State  or  Terri-. 
tory,  with  intent  to  deny  to  any  citizen  of  the  United 
States  the  due  and  equal  protection  of  the  laws,  or 
to  injure  any  person  in  his  person  or  property  for 
lawfully  enforcing  the  right  of  any  person  or  class 
of  persons  to  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws,  or 
by  force,  intimidation,  or  threat,  to  prevent  any 
citizen  of  the  United  States  lawfully  entitled  to  vote 
from  giving  his  support  or  advocacy,  in  a  lawful 
manner,  towards  or  in  favor  of  the  election  of  any 
lawfully  qualified  person  as  an  elector  of  president 
or  vice-president  of  the  United  States,  or  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  congress  of  the  United  States,  or  to  injure 
any  such  person  in  his  person  or  property,  on  ac- 
count of  such  support  or  advocacy:  each,  and  every 
person  so  offending,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a 
high  crime,  and  upon  conviction  thereof,  in  any 
district  or  circuit  court  of  the  United  States,  or  dis- 
trict or  supreme  court  of  any  Territory  of  the  United 
States,  having  jurisdiction  of  similar  offences,  shall 
be  punished  by  a  fine  not  less  than  five  hundred  nor 
more  than  five  thousand  dollars,  or  by  imprison- 
ment, with  or  without  hard  labor,  as  the  court  may 
determine,  for  a  period  not  less  than  six  months,  nor 
more  than  six  years,  as  the  court  may  determine,  or 
by  both  such  fine  and  imprisonment,  as  the  court 
shall  determine.  (2.)  And  if  any  one  or  more  per- 


KU-KLUX    LAW. 

sons  engaged  in  any  such  conspiracy  shall  do,  of 
cause  to  be  done,  any  act  in  furtherance  of  the  object 
of  such  conspiracy,  whereby  any  person  shall  be 
injured  in  his  person  or  property,  or  deprived  of 
having  and  exercising  any  right  or  privilege  of  a 
citizen  of  the  United  States,  the  person  so  injured 
or  deprived  of  such  rights  and  privileges  may  have 
and  maintain  an  action  for  the  recovery  of  damages, 
occasioned  by  such  injury  or  deprivation  of  rights 
and  privileges  against  any  one  or  more  of  the  per- 
sons  engaged  in  such  conspiracy,  such  action  to  be 
prosecuted  in  the  proper  district  or  circuit  of  the 
United  States,  with  and  subject  to  the  same  rights 
of  appeal,  review  upon  error,  and  other  remedies 
provided  in  like  cases  in  such  courts  under  the  pro- 
visions of  the  Act  of  April  ninth,  eighteen  hundred 
and  sixty-six,  entitled  "An  Act  to  protect  all  per- 
sons in  the  United  States  in  their  civil  rights,  and  to 
furnish  the  means  of  their  vindication." 

ART.  7036.  [3.]  In  all  cases  where  insurrection, 
domestic  violence,  unlawful  combinations  or  conspir- 
acies in  any  State  shall  so  obstruct  or  hinder  the 
execution  of  the  laws  thereof,  and  of  the  United 
States,  so  as  to  deprive  any  portion  or  class  of  the 
people  of  such  State  of  the  rights,  privileges,  immu- 
nities, or  protection  named  in  the  Constitution  and 
secured  by  this  act,  and  the  constituted  authorities 
of  such  State  shall  either  be  unable  to  protect,  or 
shall  from  any  cause  fail  in  or  refuse  protection  of 
the  people  in  such  rights,  such  facts  shall  be  deemed 


I3O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

*a  denial  by  such  State  of  equal  protection  of  the 
laws  of  the  United  States,  to  which  they  are  entitled 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States ;  and  in 
all  such  cases,  or  whenever  any  such  insurrection, 
violence,  unlawful  combination,  or  conspiracy  shall 
oppose  or  obstruct  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  or 
the  due  execution  thereof,  or  impede,  or  obstruct 
the  due  course  of  justice  under  the  same,  it  shall  be 
lawful  for  the  President,  and  it  shall  be  his  duty,  to 
take  such  measures,  by  the  employment  of  the  militia 
or  the  land  and  naval  forces  of  the  United  States,  or 
of  either,  or  by  other  means,  as  he  may  deem  neces- 
sary for  the  suppression  of  such  insurrection,  do- 
mestic violence,  or  combinations ;  and  any  person 
who  shall  be  arrested  under  the  provisions  of  this 
and  the  preceding  section,  shall  be  delivered  to  the 
marshal  of  the  proper  district,  to  be  dealt  with  ac- 
cording to  law. 

ART.  7037.  [4.]  Whenever  in  any  State,  or  part  of 
a  State,  the  unlawful  combinations  named  in  the  pre- 
ceding section  of  this  act  shall  be  organized  and 
armed,  and  so  numerous  and  powerful  as  to  be  able 
by  violence  to  either  overthrow  or  set  at  defiance 
the  constituted  authorities  of  such  State  and  of  the 
United  States,  within  such  States,  or  when  the  con- 
stituted authorities  are  in  complicity  with  or  shall 
connive  at  the  unlawful  purposes  of  such  powerful 
and  armed  combinations ;  and  whenever,  by  reason 
of  either  or  all  of  the  causes  aforesaid,  the  conviction 
of  such  offenders  and  the  preservation  of  the  public 


KU-KLUX    LAW.  13! 

safety  shall  become  in  such  district  impracticable,  in 
every  such  case  such  combinations  shall  be  deemed 
a  rebellion  against  the  government  of  the  United 
States,  and  during  the  continuance  of  such  rebellion, 
and  within  the  limits  of  the  district  which  shall  be 
so  under  the  sway  thereof,  such  limits  to  be  pre- 
scribed by  proclamation,  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  when  in  his  judgment 
the  public  safety  shall  require  it,  to  suspend  the 
privileges  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  to  the  end 
that  such  rebellion  may  be  overthrown.  Provided, 
That  all  the  privileges  of  the  second  section  of  an  act 
entitled  "An  Act  relating  to  habeas  corpus,  and  regu- 
lating judicial  proceedings  in  certain  cases,"  ap- 
proved March  third,  eighteen  hundred  and  sixty- 
three,  which  relates  to  the  discharge  of  prisoners 
other  than  prisoners  of  war,  and  to  the  penalty  for 
refusing  to  obey  the  orders  of  the  court,  shall  be  in 
full  force,  so  far  as  the  same  are  applicable  to  the 
provisions  of  this  section.  Provided,  further,  That  the 
President  shall  first  have  made  proclamation,  as  now 
provided  by  law,  commanding  such  insurgents  to 
disperse.  And  provided,  also,  That  the  provisions  of 
this  section  shall  not  be  enforced  after  the  end  of  the 
next  regular  session  of  Congress. 

1872.  The  foregoing  section  was  re-enacted  in  the 
Senate  (1872)  but  it  failed  in  the  House.  Hence,  by 
limitation,  it  became  obsolete  June  loth,  1872.  Ac- 
tion was  taken  under  it  by  President  Grant  in  several 
counties  in  South  Carolina  while  the  law  was  in  force. 


132  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

ART.  7038.  [5.]  No  person  shall  be  a  .grand  or 
petit  juror  in  any  court  of  the  United  States  upon 
any  inquiry,  hearing,  or  trial  of  any  suit,  proceeding, 
or  prosecution  based  upon  or  arising  under  the  pro- 
visions of  this  act  who  shall,  in  the  judgment  of  the 
court,  be  in  complicity  with  any  such  combination  or 
conspiracy ;  and  every  such  juror  shall,  before  enter- 
ing upon  any  such  inquiry,  hearing,  or  trial,  take  and 
subscribe  an  oath  in  open  court  that  he  has  never, 
directly  or  indirectly,  counselled,  advised,  or  volun- 
tarily aided  any  .such  combination  or  conspiracy ; 
and  each  and  every  person  who  shall  take  this  oath, 
and  shall  therein  swear  falsely,  shall  be  guilty  of 
perjury,  and  shall  be  subject  to  the  laws  and  penal- 
ties declared  against  that  crime  ;  and  the  first  section 
of  the  article  entitled  "  An  Act  defining  additional 
causes  of  challenge,  and  prescribing  an  additional 
oath  for  grand  and  petit  juries  in  the  United  States' 
courts,"  approved  June  i/th,  eighteen  hundred  and 
sixty-two,  be,  and  the  same  is  hereby  repealed. 

ART.  7039.  [6.]  Any  person  or  persons  having 
knowledge  that  any  of  the  wrongs  conspired  to  be 
done  and  mentioned  in  the  second  section  of  this 
act  are  about  to  be  committed,  and  having  power  to 
prevent  or  aid  in  preventing  the  same,  shall  neglect 
or  refuse  so  to  do,  and  such  wrongful  act  shall  be 
committed,  such  person  or  persons  shall  be  liable  to 
the  person  injured,  or  his  legal  representatives,  for 
all  damages  caused  by  any  such  wrongful  act,  which 
first-named  person  or  persons  by  reasonable  dili- 


KU-KLUX    LAW.  133 

gence  could  have  prevented ;  and  such  damages  may 
be  recovered  in  an  action  on  the  case  in  the  proper 
circuit  court  of  the  United  States,  and  any  number 
of  persons  guilty  of  such  wrongful  neglect  or  refusal 
may  be  joined  as  defendants  in  such  action.  Provided, 
That  such  action  shall  be  commenced  within  one  year 
after  such  cause  of  action  shall  have  occurred;  and 
if  the  death  of  any  person  shall  be  caused  by  any 
such  wrongful  act  and  neglect,  the  legal  representa- 
tive of  such  deceased  person  shall  have  such  action 
therefor,  and  may  recover  not  exceeding  five  thou- 
sand dollars'  damages  therein,  for  the  benefit  of  the 
widow  of  such  deceased  person,  if  any  there  be,  or 
if  there  be  no  widow,  for  the  benefit  of  the  next  of 
kin  of  such  deceased  person. 

ART.  7040.  [7.]  Nothing  herein  contained  shall  be 
construed  to  supersede  or  repeal  any  former  act  or 
law,  except  so  far  as  the  same  may  be  repugnant 
thereto ;  and  any  offences  heretofore  committed 
against  the  tenor  of  any  former  .act  shall  be  prose- 
cuted ;  and  any  proceeding  already  commenced  for 
the  prosecution  thereof,  shall  be  continued  and  com- 
pleted, the  same  as  if  this  act  had  not  been  passed, 
except  so  far  as  the  provisions  of  this  act  may  go  to 
sustain  and  validate  such  proceedings. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE    K.  K.  K.  IN    LOUISIANA. 

Adventists — How  they  Practised  on  the  Parasitical  Blacks  —  A 
Little  Power  is  a  Dangerous  Thing  —  The  Political  Situation  in 
'67  —  Whites  Refraining  from  Participation  in  Election  Campaigns 

—  The  State  Press  —  The  Order  of  K.  K.  K.in  Louisiana  —  When 
the  Government  Officials  were  first  Notified  of  its  Presence  —  The 
Feeling  in  Grant  Parish,  a  Shire  Division  of  the  State  created  for 
Political  Purposes  —  Riot  Growing  out  of  a  Personal  Difficulty  — 
Blacks  Entrenched  in  the  Court-House  at  Colfax  —  Besieged  by  a 
Force  of  from  Three  Hundred  to  Four  Hundred  Men  —  Parley  — 
Negroes    Refuse    to  Surrender  —  A  Second  Defiance  —  Building 
Fired  —  Massacre  and  Termination  of  the  Bloody  Affair — Statis- 
tics of  Losses  in  the  Fight  —  Who  were  Responsible  —  The  White 
League  or  Camelias  —  Occupied  the  K.  K.  K.  Basis  in  Externals 

—  New  Orleans  Riots  —  Their  Effect  on  the  Returning  Boards  — 
Coushatta  —  K.  K.  K.  in  Texas  —  Border  History  Uneventful — • 
Texas  Legislature  Interferes. 

IN  the  States  of  Louisiana  and  South  Carolina  the 
war  between  the  K.'s  and  Loyal  League  waged 
fiercest,  and  was  longest  protracted,  for  here  the 
fires  of  political  proscription  were  earliest  lighted, 
and  the  boundaries  of  party  maintained  with  the 
greatest  fortitude.  In  the  former  State,  a  party  of 
men,  who  were  known  in  certain  quarters  by  the 
derisive  title  of  "  Adventists,"  had  assumed  to  con- 
trol its  affairs,  not  so  much  in  the  interest  of,  as  by 


THE    K.  K.  K.  IN    LOUISIANA.  135 

the  use  of,  as  a  means,  the  negro  element  of  its 
population.  Practising  upon  the  credulity  of  this 
unenlightened  class,  it  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
they  effected  their  object;  and  for  a  period  of  more 
than  seven  years  around  these  central  suns  of  the 
political  firmament  the  parasitical  blacks  fluttered. 
Governors,  congressmen,  and  legislators  were  cre- 
ated from  this  material  without  any  reference 
whatever  to  the  legal  attainments  or  other  qualifi- 
cations of  the  aspirants,  and  with  a  view  only  to 
such  class  legislation  as  could  be  made  available  to 
the  negro  rings,  and  destructive  to  the  people's 
interests  in  that  quarter. 

Placed  in  control  of  affairs,  these  men,  having 
suffered  under  the  dispensation  which  the  poet 
sought  to  describe  in  the  words,  "  A  little  learning 
is  a  dangerous  thing,  etc.,"  and  suspecting,  moreover, 
that  his  meaning  had  not  been  fully  brought  out  in 
that  expressive  stanza,  astonished  even  their  fol- 
lowers with  an  example  which  said  "  a  little  power 
is  a  dangerous  thing."  Legislating,  mainly,  with  a 
view  to  continuance  in  authority,  and  arbitrarily 
seizing  the  elective  machinery  of  the  State,  they  had, 
independently  of  the  League,  under  the  existing  con- 
ditions, an  unlimited  lease  of  the  State  administra- 
tion. Nor  did  they  fail  to  realize  the  advantages 
that  came  to  them  under  the  system  of  government 
which  they  had  adopted.  Having  found  a  precedent 
for  the  most  pronounced  transgressions  of  a  written 
law  in  the  acts  of  their  co-conspirators  in  other 


136  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

States,  and  an  excuse  in  the  resistance  which  they 
inspired,  they  proceeded  to  lengths  of  usurpation 
which  those  interested  for  the  cause  of  liberty  on 
those  shores  viewed  with  surprise  and  dismay. 
The  fullest  use  was  made  of  every  prerogative,  and 
in  innumerable  instances  they  were  subjected  to 
that  stretching  process  which  has  been  commonly 
found  so  destructive  to  the  article. 

So  rapid  was  the  transition  from  the  war  period  to 
that  of  political  anarchy,  which  followed  in  obedience 
to  these  conditions,  that  as  early  as  the  year  1867 
the  State  was  hopelessly  committed  to  an  ignorant 
and  unprincipled  minority,  and  in  every  portion 
thereof  the  white  masses  refrained  from  even  attend- 
ing the  polls,  so  well  assured  were  they  that  the  fair 
majorities  which  they  could  score  would  be  dis- 
placed by  the  most  barefaced  fictions.  The  opposi- 
tion or  conservative  press,  on  the  other  hand,  never 
ceased  to  perform  its  whole  duty,  representing  to 
the  people  the  true  condition  of  affairs  at  the  capi- 
tal, the  constant  abuses  of  the  legislative  functions, 
the  enormous  treasury  shortages,  judicial  tyrannies, 
etc.,  etc. ;  though,  as  was  indicated  by  their  course 
subsequently,  to  the  more  intelligent  of  those  whom 
were  addressed,  this  seemed  but  a  citation  of  evils 
that  were  remediless;  and  where  plans  of  relief  were 
suggested,  of  remedies  that  were  placed  hopelessly 
beyond  their  reach.  Even  in  the  city  of  New 
Orleans,  where  these  exhortations  were  most  fre- 
quently heard,  the  municipal  elections  not  un- 


THE    K.  K.  K.  IN    LOUISIANA.  137 

often  went  by  default  to  the  minority  representa- 
tives ;  and  multitudes  (who  have  since  testified  their 
devotion  to  the  cause  of  right),  attracted  by  the 
patronage  of  the  winning  power,  while  refusing  to 
give  them  aid,  tendered  them  congratulations. 

Others  to  whom  these  philippics  came,  and  who 
in  their  country  homes  had  been  subjected  to  the 
intolerable  rigors  of  League  politics,  took  the  ap- 
peals even  more  seriously  than  they  were  intended, 
and  began  that  secret  warfare  on  the  agents  of  op- 
pression in  their  midst,  which,  however  effectual  it 
may  have  proven  in  the  end,  must  always  be  depre- 
cated on  the  ground  of  those  inequalities  of  prin- 
ciple which  it  represented,  and  of  means  it  employed. 

The  first  secret  political  organization  enterprised 
against  the  Radical  power  in  Louisiana  was  unques- 
tionably that  edition  of  the  K.  K.  K.  which  we  have 
been  treating,  and  which  proved  so  effective  in  dis- 
establishing the  various  isms  of  the  party  in  other 
sections;  but  it  is  no  less  certain  that,  at  no  advanced 
stage  of  its  existence  on  Louisiana  soil,  it  underwent 
a  very  positive  metempsychosis,  and  became,  there- 
after, the  White  League,  or  White  Camelias  as  some- 
times addressed  representatively.  But  no  matter 
by  what  appellative  known,  nor  under  what  consti- 
tutional emendations  proceeding,  the  idea  was  no- 
where more  aggressively  employed  in  the  work  of 
uprooting  the  Radical  succession,  and  rendering 
Southern  hospitality,  as  applicable  to  its  agents,  a 
thing  of  unmitigated  terror.  For  a  year  or  more 


138  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

after  its  organization  had  been  completed,  little  was 
done  apparently,  but  during  this  time  the  League  in 
all  its  departments  had  been  subjected  to  a  rigid  es- 
pionage, and  the  communications  of  the  former  with 
the  transactions  of  government  at  the  capital,  estab- 
lished by  the  same  means. 

A  slight  difficulty  in  one  of  the  Northern  parishes, 
growing  out  of  an  election  issue,  was  perhaps  the 
first  intimation  conveyed  to  the  Louisiana  State  au- 
thorities that  they  were  to  encounter  opposition  of 
this  character.  It,  however,  was  local  in  its  belong- 
ings, and  though  widely  published  by  the  organs  of 
the  League  at  the  North,  was  not  deemed  worthy 
of  attention  by  the  State  press.  In  Grant  Parish,  a 
new  shire  division  of  the  State,  created  with  a  view 
to  political  ends,  the  quarrel  of  the  factions  assumed 
a  serious  shape  at  an  early  day,  and  here  eventually 
transpired  one  of  the  most  fearful  tragedies  of  this 
bloody  epoch.  A  remarkable  feature  of  this  affair 
was  that  it  grew  out  of  a  purely  personal  matter,  if  we 
may  except  the  contrast  of  races  involved.  The  de- 
tails of  the  private  quarrel  would  of  course  be  unin- 
teresting, and  the  bloody  particulars  which  followed 
may  be  recited  in  a  few  words. 

An  issue  of  races  having  been  distinctly  made,  the 
two  parties  assembled  in  force  ;  the  blacks,  after  some 
preliminary  manoeuvring,  entrenching  themselves  in 
the  court-house  at  Colfax,  and  bidding  defiance  to 
their  enemies.  They  were  at  once  closely  besieged 
by  a  force  equalling,  or  possibly  barely  exceeding, 


THE    K.  K.  K.  IN    LOUISIANA.  139 

their  own  (three  hundred  to  four  hundred  men),  and, 
after  some  parleying,  an  unconditional  surrender  de- 
manded. This  was  resisted  on  the  expressed  con- 
dition that  the  entrenched  force,  though  in  the  mi- 
nority, were  "able  to  defend  themselves,"  and  would 
do  so  at  every  hazard.  An  irregular  skirmish  fol- 
lowed, pending  which  no  advantage  resulted  to  the 
attacking  party,  and  seeing  which,  the  leaders  of  the 
movement  resolved  on  bolder  measures.  The  blacks 
were  again  notified  that  they  must  vacate  their  quar- 
ters, or  submit  to  the  torch,  as  the  besiegers  were 
fully  resolved  upon  dispossessing  them  of  that  strong- 
hold. This  they  seem  to  have  regarded  as  a  mere 
threat,  impossible  of  execution,  and  continued  to 
throw  out  defiances  and  fire  an  occasional  shot  into  the 
enemy's  ranks.  The  whites,  on  the  other  hand,  un- 
awed  by  their  manner,  and  fully  decided  to  adopt  this 
measure  as  a  dernier  ressort,  sent  forward  parties  com- 
missioned for  the  dangerous  service.  It  is  not  known 
what  resistance,  if  any,  was  offered  to  this  stratagem, 
but  very  soon  the  building  was  in  flames  from  pillar  to 
turret,  and  the  terrified  blacks  rushing  forth  in  mad 
haste,  to  encounter  a  fate  scarcely  less  terrible  than 
that  of  befng  roasted  in  the  flames.  As  they  emerged 
from  the  burning  building,  the  attacking  columns 
threw  themselves  on  their  flanks,  and  poured  volley 
after  volley  into  their  now  fairly  stampeded  ranks. 
Scores  fell  under  the  first  deadly  assault,  and  as  they 
passed  on  in  their  flight  they  were,  intercepted  or 
overtaken  by  their  infuriated  pursuers,  the  massacre 


I4O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

continuing  a  full  hour  after  the  terrified  rout  had 
begun  to  issue  from  the  building. 

The  statistics  of  the  loss  on  either  side  in  this 
engagement  have  never  been  given  with  accuracy, 
and  there  is  good  reason  to  believe  that  many  of  the 
approximations  that  have  gone  to  the  world  have 
embodied  intentional  errors.  From  those  who  were 
participating  in  the  affair,  and  represented  the  hostile 
factions  in  about  equal  proportion,  we  obtain  the 
following  estimate  of  their  respective  losses:  Blacks 
killed,  ninety ;  wounded,  twenty-five.  Whites  killed, 
five ;  wounded,  three.  In  the  skirmish  but  few  of 
the  whites  wore  masks,  and  this  affair  has  generally 
been  regarded  the  fruit  of  a  popular  uprising,  and 
not  strictly  chargeable  to  any  secret  organization,  or 
body  of  men  banded  together  for  political  purposes. 
It  occurred,  moreover,  at  a  time  when  partisan  feel- 
ing in  that  section  had  reached  a  strong  ebb,  and 
men  were  incensed  against  each  other  as  they  rarely 
become  in  the  light  of  such  incentives.  That  the 
Klan  was  officially  represented  in  the  affair  was  gen- 
erally conceded. 

It  was  about  this  time,  or  a  little  previously,  that 
the  famous  White  League  came  into  existence,  occu- 
pying the  K.  K.  K.  basis  as  to  politics,  and  in 
all  essentials  of  its  organization  formulated  upon 
the  same  model.  This  society  assumed  the  duty 
of  regulating  the  political  affairs  of  the  State,  and 
that  it  succeeded  to  some  extent  in  purifying  the 
constitutions  of  the  Returning  Boards,  those  mon- 


THE    K.  K.  K.  IN    LOUISIANA.  14! 

ster  instrumentalities  of  fraud  belonging  to  the  Rad- 
ical elective  system  here,  there  can  be  no  doubt. 
It  was,  however,  open  to  many  objections,  and  on 
equitable  grounds  must  have  been  defeated  by  the 
same  testimony  that  in  some  instances  was  made 
available  against  the  Klan.  It  was  responsible  for 
the  New  Orleans  riots  of  December  1874,  in  which 
hundreds  of  lives  were  sacrificed,  and  which  sub- 
jected the  party  which  it  assumed  to  represent  to  a 
manifest  loss  of  influence.  The  Kellogg,  or  Radical 
faction,  however,  received  severe  punishment  at  their 
hands,  and  made  many  valuable  concessions  under 
the  election  issues,  from  which  the  troubles  grew ; 
and  it  was  in  this  affair,  likewise,  that  the  Returning 
Boards,  above  mentioned,  were  made  to  feel  their 
power,  and  "  by  the  same  sign  "  induced  to  amend 
their  ways.  A  bloody  affair  at  Coushatta,  in  the 
Red  River  country,  followed  in  the  succeeding  year; 
but  as  the  transactions  of  this  body  are  not  strictly 
within  the  purview  of  the  present  work,  we  refrain 
from  a  statement  of  the  particulars. 

The  Klan,  finding  its  services  no  longer  available 
here,  in  obedience  to  its  nomadic  instincts  crossed 
the  Texas  border,  and  for  a  year  or  two  following 
[Davis,  Radical,  being  at  that  time  Governor],  as- 
sisted in  the  administration  of  Texas  affairs.  But 
while  it  proved  a  factor  of  no  mean  consequence  in 
almost  every  political  measure  which  agitated  the 
Border  mind,  and  numerous  local  raids  were  reported 
by  the  State  journals,  its  frontier  history  was  made 


142  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

up  of  unimportant  details,  whose  want  of  adaptation 
to  the  plan  of  this  volume  must  be  our  excuse  for 
omitting  them.  The  following  statute,  referring  to 
the  subject,  was  enacted  by  the  Texas  Legislature 
of  contemporaneous  date  : 

Unlawfully   appearing  in   disguise    as    Ku-Klux, 
White  Camelias,  and  other  Deviltry,  punished. 

ART.  6508.  [i.]  The  penal  code  for  the  State  of 
Texas  shall  be  amended  as  follows,  by  inserting 
after  Act  363  the  following  :  [363]  a  If  the  purpose 
of  the  unlawful  assembly  be  to  alarm  and  frighten 
any  person,  or  persons,  by  appearing  in  disguise,  so 
that  the  real  persons  so  acting  and  assembling  can- 
not be  readily  known,  and  by  using  language  or 
gestures  calculated  to  produce  in  such  person  or 
persons  the  fear  of  bodily  harm,  all  persons  engaged 
therein  shall  be  punished  by  fine  not  less  than  one 
hundred,  nor  more  than  one  thousand  dollars  each  ; 
and  if  such  unlawful  assembly  shall  take  place  at 
any  time  of  the  night  —  that  is,  between  sunset  and 
sunrise  —  the  fine  shall  be  doubled;  and  if  three  or 
more  persons  are  found  together  disguised  and 
armed  with  deadly  weapons,  the  same  shall  be  prima 
facie  evidence  of  the  guilty  purpose  of  such  persons, 
as  above  described;  and  if  any  other  unlawful  as- 
sembly, mentioned  in  this  chapter,  consist  in  whole 
or  in  part  of  persons  disguised  and  armed  with 
deadly  weapons,  the  fine  to  be  assessed  upon  each 
person  so  offending  shall  be  double  the  penalty 
hereinbefore  described, 


CHAPTER   XV. 

TALLY-HO  ! 

The  Situation  in  Georgia — Bullock  Usurpation — Some  Things  which 
may  be  Explained — Negro  Criminals  — Taking  Refuge  in  the  Oc- 
mulgee  Swamps  —  A  Brutal  Murder  —  Ku-Klux  Ambushed  —  A 
Terrible  Oath  —  Uncle  Jack  B.  —  A  Brief  Memoir  —  "  Nigger 
Dogs  "  in  the  "  Goober  State  "  -«-  Uncle  Jack  Interviewed  by  the 
Ku-Klux  —  What  came  of  it  —  Getting  Ready  for  the  Chase  —  A 
Pack  of  "  Negro  Dogs"  described  —  In  the  Swamps — The  Open- 
ing Chorus  — A  Warm  Trail  —  Swimming  the  Ocmulgee —  Disap- 
pointment— The  Lull  is  Past — The  Cheering  Notes  of  the  Chase — 
Blood  of  the  Martyrs !  can  it  be  ?  — A  Last  Effort — Another  Crime 
added  to  the  Calendar  — A  fresh  Start — Baffled  Again  — At  Bay — 
Tragical  Scene. 

AS  the  K.  K.  K.  influence  was  not  felt  in  the 
politics  of  the  south-west  after  the  events  which 
we  have  narrated,  and  the  scope  of  this  work  for- 
bids our  entering  into  such  details  as  comprised  the 
Chicot  county  affair  in  Arkansas,  and  the  Vicksburg 
(Miss.)  emeute,  which  was  unquestionably  due  in  part 
to  other  influences,  we  yield  to  the  eccentricities  of 
our  theme,  and  find  ourselves  under  the  shadow  of 
that  towering  usurpation  —  the  Bullock  administra- 
tion in  Georgia.  The  organization  of  the  Klan  in 
this  State  was  perhaps  more  extensive  and  efficient 
than  elsewhere  on  Southern  soil,  —  proving  a  com- 

M3 


144  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

plete  offset  to  the  Loyal  League  in  the  important 
work  of  influencing  party  discipline,  and,  after  a  time, 
effecting  its  other  aim  —  of  rendering  it  physically 
hors  du  combat.  We  shall  not  pretend,  however,  to 
follow  it  through  the  various  stages  of  its  develop- 
ment on  Georgia  soil,  nor  give  what  might  be 
deemed  a  correct  history  of  its  movements,  as  we  are 
concerned  rather  with  the  issues  which  grew  out  of 
the  latter,  and  that  which  will  prove  far  more  inter- 
esting to  the  reader  —  the  modus  of  its  operations. 

A  single  feature  of  the  campaign  in  this  region  we 
will  endeavor  to  make  prominent,  without  a  design 
of  saddling  its  individuality  on  this  State,  or  insinu- 
ating that  that  branch  of  the  pet  institution  vulgarly 
known  as  "  nigger  dogs  "  was  not  as  widely  diffused 
as  its  popular  derivative,  and  far  too  fossilized  in 
its  structure  to  submit  to  any  merely  sentimental 
changes  in  types  of  government.  So  far  as  that 
phase  of  the  subject  may  tend  to  obtrude  difficulties 
upon  the  reader,  the  writer  will  volunteer  the  infor- 
mation that  he  was  recently  placed  by  accident  at  a 
point  where  his  sensorium  covered  three  large  well- 
trained  kennels  of  these  brutes ;  and  that  it  has  been 
his  good  fortune,  on  more  occasions  than  one,  since 
liberty  resumed  its  old-time  inheritance  in  the  "  land 
we  love,"  to  follow  the  panting  "  Ketch,"  where  none 
dare  go  before,  along  the  redolent  trail  of  the  crimi- 
nal —  black  or  white.  Nor  is  there  anything  more 
remarkable  about  the  circumstance  that  the  body  of 
men  known  as  Ku-Klux  should,  upon  certain  contin- 


TALLY-HO  !  145 

gencies,  avail  themselves  of  the  services  of  this  saga- 
cious brute,  than  that  the  same  men,  by  accident  or 
otherwise,  should  be  employed  on  a  righteous  mis- 
sion like  the  following: 

In  the  year  1862,  in  that  portion  of  Telfair  county 
where  the  Elk  river  has  its  confluence  with  the  Oc- 

mulgee,  a  larger  stream,  a  negro  slave  of  Mr. 

committed  a  brutal  rape  on  one  of  his  master's 
household,  and  fled  to  the  neighboring  wilderness. 
He  was  not  pursued  at  the  time,  as,  in  view  of  the 
recent  conscript  levies  and  the  unsettled  state  of  the 
country,  there  were  no  available  means  at  hand ;  and, 
aided  by  individuals  of  his  own  color,  whose  race 
prejudices  at  this  time, had  reached  a  state  of  savage 
excitement,  he  found  safe  harborage  and  a  precarious 
livelihood  in  the  river-swamps  during  the  entire  pe- 
riod of  the  war.  Pending  his  exile,  and  soon  after 
it  began,  he  was  joined  by  an  only  brother,  a  brother- 
criminal  likewise,  who  had  been  forced  to  fly  the 
settlements;  and,  having  formed  an  alliance  —  sun 
and  ek  —  the  predatory  excursions  of  this  twain 
became  thereafter  the  special  terror  of  dwellers  in 
that  exposed  region.  Nothing,  however,  particu- 
larly worthy  of  mention  marked  their  exploits  until 
the  year  following  the  close  of  hostilities,  when  they 
emerged  from  their  fastnesses,  and  having  made 
their  way  to  a  neighboring  settlement,  occupied  by 
an  old  gentleman  and  an  only  son,  a  youth  of  twelve 
years,  put  them  both  to  death  with  every  circum- 
stance of  horrible  detail.  This  affair  occurred  in 
13  K 


146  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

the  latter  part  of  the  year  1865,  and,  as  was  to  have 
been  expected,  created  a  wide-spread  sensation. 

Within  a  few  hours  after  the  deed  had  been  com- 
mitted, a  well-equipped  party  of  horsemen  started 
in  pursuit,  and  for  more  than  a  week  conducted  a 
thorough  campaign  through  that  division  of  the  Oc- 
mulgee  swamps  that  was  supposed  to  have  furnished 
a  retreat  to  the  murderers.  They  did  not  succeed, 
however,  further  than  to  obtain  a  view  of  the  refu- 
gees, and  salute  them  with  a  volley  at  long  range ; 
and  seeing  that  their  efforts  would  prove  fruitless, 
returned  to  their  homes.  Here  the  matter  rested 
until  the  following  spring,  when  a  party  of  Ku-Klux, 
raiding  in  that  vicinity,  were  fired  upon  from  the 
brush,  and  one  of  their  number  killed,  by  two  men 
who  were  positively  recognized  as  the  swamp-ruffi- 
ans. Having  buried  their  dead  companion,  in  obe- 
dience to  the  strange  ceremonies  in  vogue  with 
them,  the  members  of  the  Klan  assembled  around 
his  grave,  and  recorded  an  oath  "  never  to  relent  from 
their  purpose  of  revenge,  nor  cease  the  pursuit  of 
his  murderers,  while  the  Ocmulgee  contained  water, 
and  the  region  fertilized  by  it  and  its  tributaries  sup- 
ported an  inch  of  unexplored  territory." 

Not  far  from  the  scene  of  the  last  occurrence 
lived  Uncle  Jack  B ,  a  character  in  the  neigh- 
borhood prior  to  Sherman's  raid  and  reconstruction, 
but  who,  since  those  events,  in  view  of  a  somewhat 
disproportioned  record,  had  been  singing  exceed- 
ingly small.  In  ante  bellum  times,  this  old  gentle- 
man had  been  looked  up  to,  by  both  whites  and 


TALLY-HO  !  147 

blacks  of  his  vicinity,  as  in  some  sense  the  reigning 
monarch  of  the  locality,  and  one  between  whose 
smiles  and  frowns  lay  considerations  that  might 
engage  the  attention  of  much  weightier  personages 
than  any  whom  the  countryside  supported.  In  brief, 
Uncle  Jack  had  been  the  proud  proprietor  of  the 
largest  and  best  known  pack  of  "  nigger  dogs  "  in 
the  "  Goober  State,"  with  all  that  that  implied  in  the 
language  of  the  reconstructionists ;  and  if  he  did 
not  still  possess  that  distinction,  it  was  altogether 
attributable  to  the  circumstance  that  the  office  which 
it  involved  had  ceased  to  be  a  sinecure,  and  the 
property  in  question  was  no  longer  quoted  among 
commercial  values.  But  though  the  old  man  and 
his  beasts  bowed  their  heads  under  the  in  terrorem 
of  the  new  order  of  things,  they  well  knew  that  this 
dies  ira  could  not  last  always,  and  were,  moreover, 
fully  persuaded  of  the  truth  of  the  old  proverb  which 
insures  to  every  well-behaved  canine  a  "  dish  "  in 
passing  events.  That  they  were  not  sophists  in  this 
matter  will  be  sufficiently  demonstrated  by  the  re- 
maining events  of  this  chapter. 

At  precisely  twelve  o'clock  on  the  night  succeed- 
ing that  which  witnessed  the  tragical  event  last  nar- 
rated above,  Uncle  Jack  held  a  long  conference,  at 
the  outer  gate  of  his  premises,  with  three  mounted 
men,  and  shortly  thereafter  might  have  been  ob- 
served to  visit  his  stable  and  dog-kennel,  lingering 
for  some  time  in  the  vicinity  of  each.  A  half-hour  or 
more  was  consumed  by  the  details  of  a  preparation 
from  which  it  was  plain  to  be  seen  some  mystery 


148  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

was  in  course  of  evolution,  and  the  old  man,  mount- 
ed on  his  now  full-rigged  hunter,  and  swept  forward 
in  a  tempest  of  dolorous  howlings,  turned  an  angle 
of  the  close,  and  joined  his  weird  visitors. 

It  will  hardly  be  necessary  to  inform  the  reader 
that  these  men  were  K.  K.  K.  emissaries,  who  had 
been  dispatched  to  secure  the  hunter  and  his  dogs 
to  aid  them  in  the  difficult  enterprise  which  they  had 
undertaken ;  and  looking  from  one  to  the  other  of 
the  new  levies,  he  would  have  no  hesitancy  in- 
making  up  his  mind  that  "Barkis  was  willin',''  and 
the  "yaller  beauties,"  as  he  was  wont  to  term  them, 
"  spilin' "  for  nigger  meat.  These  latter  were  com- 
posed of  a  dozen  brace  of  the  best  Florida  breed  of 
the  hybrid  blood-  and  sleuth-hound,  fat  and  frolic- 
some, wearing  sleek  coats  of  yellow,  and  as  to  size, 
if  put  to  the  test,  the  runtiest  of  the  runts  would 
have  kicked  the  beam  at  fifty  pounds.  Leashed  in 
couples,  they  made  rapid  circuits  around  the  now 
galloping  horsemen,  filling  the  night  with  the  music 
of  their  weird  chorus,  and  falling  to  an  indiscrimi- 
nate and  discordant  baying  whenever  hog  or  cow  or 
other  animate  thing,  startled  from  their  covert,  stood 
still  to  guess  at  the  intrusion.  Three  miles  from 
the  point  of  starting,  the  main  company  was  reached, 
and  soon  afterwards,  passing  into  the  edge  of  the  bot- 
tom, the  dogs  were  released  from  their  slips,  and  at  a 
word  from  the  hunter,  and.  directing  a  premonitory 
sniff  at  their  surroundings,  sped  into  the  darkness. 
For  an  hour  or  more  the  hunters  pressed  their  way 
through  the  pitchy  swamps,  now  following  a  scarcely 


TALLY-HO  !  149 

distinguishable  stock  trail,  now  lightened  upon  by  a 
gleam  of  starlight  from  above,  and  not  unfrequently 
committed  for  guidance  to  the  instincts  of  the  ani- 
mals they  bestrode,  without  other  report  from  the 
excited  yelpers  than  was  too  timidly  given  to  be 
accounted  much  worth,  or  called  forth  the  response 
from  some  guttural  cavity  of  the  forest,  "  a  lie." 
Reaching  the  banks  of  the  river,  at  a  point  five  miles 
below  the  swamp  line  at  which  their  road  had  in- 
tersected the  bottom,  a  halt  was  called,  and  the  com- 
pany sat  peering  into  the  darkness,  for  the  first  time 
doubtful  of  their  enterprise,  when  lo !  within  ten 
feet  of  the  rearmost  file  a  welcome  sound  broke  the 
stillness  —  at  first  low  and  doubtful,  but  gaining  in 
volume  and  flowing  into  blended  notes  —  one  —  two 
—  three  —  and  then  a  stunning,  Wagnerian  chorus, 
that  lifted  every  horseman  from  his  stirrups,  and 
sent  the  wood  echoes  rolling  in  sonorous  waves 
along  the  breast  of  the  forest.  A  loud  hurrah  from 
the  hunters  attested  their  equal  joy,  and  hue  and 
cry  being  joined,  the  panic  of  pursuit  began.  Straight 
up  the  river  bank  the  roaring  pack  held  on  their 
course,  not  once  veering  to  the  right  nor  left,  nor 
never  slackening  speed,  and  timid  horsemen,  that 
erst  had  shivered  if  their  steeds  but  stumbled  in  the 
darkness,  now  rode  abreast  of  the  panting  "leader," 
swelling  the  volume  of  sound  with  their  loud  halloos, 
and  leaping  branch  and  inlet  sound  with  the  agility 
of  the  frightened  deer  that  sped  before.  Even  the 
"  Ketch,"  usually  sedate  and  disallowing  confidences, 
13* 


I5O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

had  been  momentarily  thawed  by  the  all-pervading 
enthusiasm,  and  joining  the  pack  just  where  the 
fun  grew  furious,  howled  a  dismal  accompaniment 
to  the  cheering  notes  of  the  chase.  On,  on,  into  the 
darkness  beyond,  sped  the  tempest  of  pursuit — now 
wedged  into  narrow  passes  and  involved  in  a  hun- 
dred confused  knots,  now  unravelling  on  the  open 
plains  beyond  and  flowing  on  in  currents  bold  and 
free  as  those  that  kissed  the  shore  beneath  them, 
now  leaping  brake  and  fell,  now  skirting  hazardous 
banks,  now  hugging  obtrusive  shores,  and  hark ! 
at  a  sharp  signal  from  the  "  leader "  all  sounds  are 
hushed, — followed  by  a  plunging  boom,  and,  churned 
into  a  thousand  eddies,  the  bold  Ocmulgee  supports 
the  rout  of  panting  men  and  beasts,  who  have  no 
sooner  recovered  from  the  chilling  baptism  than 
each  bends  forward  in  a  mad  struggle  to  reach  first 
the  yonder  shore  and  herald  this  clamorous  invasion 
to  its  phantoms  of  darkness.  But  so  close  on  the 
heels  of  the  dripping  "  leader "  pressed  the  frantic 
crew — who  owed  him  fealty  come  life  or  death  — 
that  his  opening  chorus  was  echoed  by  a  hundred 
lesser  sounds  that  were  not  echoes,  and  with  a 
mighty  effort  the  panting"  Ketch,"  leaping  sheer  from 
the  waves  to  the  upper  bank,  was  not  too  late  with 
his  base  variation.  And  now  the  wild  pursuit  is 
begun  anew,  for  the  tardiest  horseman  is  spurring 
into  the  depth  of  the  forest  beyond,  and  skurrying 
out  of  sight  and  hearing  —  if  that  were  possible  — 
the  wailing  wood  notes  have  a  story  to  whisper  to 
the  deserted  shore. 


TALLY-HO  !  151 

But  "  the  best  laid  plans  of  mice  and  men  aft  gang 
aglee,"  and  not  above  a  half  mile  from  their  watery 
exodus  the  puzzled  yelpers  vary  their  chorus  and 
slacken  speed,  and,  warned  by  a  ringing  blast  on  the 
huntsman's  horn,  the  whole  company  of  baffled  pur- 
suers double  on  their  track,  and  by  twos,  and  threes, 
and  then  in  larger  squads,  rejoin  their  river  base. 
Here  the  huntsmen  consult  together,  and  the  pack 
renew  their  frenzy,  frisking  along  the  river  shore, 
scouring  the  woods,  and  soon  afterwards,  indicating 
by  a  yelping  chorus  far  down  the  stream  that  the 
stratagem  of  the  refugees  led  them  that  way.  The 
impatient  horsemen  soon  gallop  at  their  heels,  and 
after  one  or  two  dissentient  howls  from  the  aged 
skeptics  of  the  pack,  they  one  and  all  run  full  upon 
the  warm  scent,  with  a  clamor  that  causes  the  woods 
to  "  ring  again,"  and  sends  the  vital  current  tingling 
along  the  veins  of  the  coldest-blooded  horseman. 
And  now  the  lull  is  past,  and  the  thunder  of  pursuit 
once  more  greets  the  forest  echoes.  Away,  away, 
distancing  the  swamp  tracts  and  riding  into  the 
region  of  the  morning,  for  its  first  beams,  striking 
through  the  tree-boughs,  sprinkle  their  forms  and 
play  in  feathered  jets  along  the  bosom  of  the  forest. 
Away,  away,  riding  neck  and  neck  with  the  fleet- 
footed  swamp-hare,  and  crossing  the  hurricane's 
track  with  a  rush  and  sound  that  might  have  been 
its  refrain.  Away,  away,  emerging  upon  the  broad 
plateau,  and  yelling,  yelping,  whooping,  cursing, 
but  never  slackening  speed.  Away,  away,  vanishing 


IJ2  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

through  lanes,  disappearing  over  hill-tops,  and  clat- 
tering through  the  valleys  beyond,  with  a  mighty 
hubbub  that  jars  the  base  of  the  hills,  and  sends 
the  round  echoes  careering  at  their  backs. 

Blood  of  the  martyrs  !  can  it  be  ?  Just  at  the  apex 
of  yonder  rise  which  the  feet  of  the  pursuers  take 
hold  upon,  lives  an  unprotected  widow  and  her 
daughter,  and  with  ominous  precision  of  stride  the 
hue  and  cry  points  that  way. 

The  instincts  of  both  men  and  beasts  instantly 
acquaint  them  with  the  situation,  and,  bending  forward 
in  one  last  despairing  effort,  they  emulate  the  rush 
of  the  tornado  as  they  bear  down  the  enclosures  and 
sweep  up  the  incline,  just  in  time  to  witness  the 
most  piteous  spectacle  that  men  with  emotions  were 
ever  invited  to  commiserate.  The  panting  pack, 
first  on  the  scene,  leap  on  the  frightened  and  weep- 
ing women  with  furious  growls,  licking  their  faces 
and  hands,  sniffing  at  their  forms,  and  baying  from 
all  quarters,  until,  driven  from  thence,  they  rush  into 
the  single  apartment,  leap  on  the  beds,  drag  them  to 
the  floor,  and  falling  to,  with  the  fury  of  wild  beasts 
disappointed  of  their  prey,  tear  them  into  shreds.* 
Being  expelled  from  thence,  the  hunters  hear  the  do- 
lorous narrative  of  the  women,  cross-question  them 
as  to  particulars  which  may  aid  them  in  the  pur- 
suit, and  having  lost  but  little  time,  follow  the  now 

*  The  reader's  fancy,  aided  by  the  hints  supplied  in  the  text,  has  doubtless  in- 
formed him  that  these  females  had  fallen  victims  to  the  lust  of  the  flying  desperadoes  ; 
for,  perceiving  the  hand  of  fate  in  the  impending  catastrophe,  and  having  nothing 
to  hope  from  the  indulgence  of  their  pursuers,  they  realized  that  this  startling  crime 
could  only  hasten  the  denouement,  not  add  to  their  weight  of  doom. 


TALLY-HO  !  153 

furious  hounds  in  a  noisy  detour  around  the  little 
farm.  Again  and  again  this  is  repeated,  and  men 
and  dogs  are  fairly  baffled.  The  former  dismount 
and  examine  the  ground  for  visible  signs,  but  are  un- 
rewarded, and  seem  ready  to  despair,  when  one  of 
the  pack,  having  leaped  to  the  close  fence,  follows 
it  for  some  distance,  and  finally  breaks  forth  into 
that  ominous  bark  which  criminal  never  heard  un- 
daunted. Instantly  he  is  joined  by  his  impatient 
companions,  and  the  welkin  rings  with  their  loud 
acclaim.  The  hunters  follow,  but  almost  too  late,  as 
the  sequel  proves;  for  having  invaded  the  barn,  a 
few  rods  distant,  and  discovered  there  the  objects  of 
their  rage,  the  excited  pack  had  well-nigh  ended  this 
series  of  tragedies.  The  mangled  remains  of  one  of 
the  criminals  was  dragged  forth  a  lifeless  corpse,  and 
his  associate,  defending  himself  with  a  clubbed  gun, 
had  disabled  half  the  number  of  his  assailants  when 
he  in  turn  was  overpowered,  and  but  for  the  inter- 
vention of  his  pursuers  must  have  suffered  a  like  fate. 

But  the  rescue  proved  ill-timed,  in  one  sense  at 
least,  for  no  sooner  had  the  ruffian  been  disengaged 
from  his  dilemma  and  lifted  from  the  building,  than 
a  shot  was  heard  from  behind,  and,  bleeding  from 
twenty  wounds,  he  rolled  lifeless  on  the  sward. 

Looking  in  the  direction  whence  the  report  came, 
the  hunters  saw  the  form  of  the  girl  who,  a  little 
while  ago,  had  engaged  their  attention  as  a  pale  and 
woe-begone  Lucrece,  now  expanded  into  a  Hebe, 
and,  still  unrevenged,  levelling  her  smoking  weapon 
at  the  form  of  the  African. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 
THE  "SHAMS." 

The  Klan  in  South  Carolina  —  Officious  Interference  in  Politics  — 
Atrocious  Performances  of  Men  in  Masks  — The  "  Shams,"  or  Coun- 
terfeit Editions  of  K.  K.  K.  —  How  Organized  —  Purposes  of  the 
Organization  —  Their  Vocabulary  of  Crime  —  South  Carolina  Fa- 
natics —  How  the  "  Sham  "  Movement  Affected  the  K.  K.  K. — 
Parodied  out  of  the  Field  — A  Resolution  of  sine  die  Adjournment 
—  K.  K.  K.  Horrors  on  the  Increase  — The  "  Shams  "  were  Opposed 
in  their  Movements  not  only  by  the  Party  who  had  formerly  Up- 
held the  K.  K.  K.,  etc  —  Rotten-Egg  Battalions — Citizens  some- 
times took  the  Execution  of  the  Law  into  their  Own  Hands  —  A 
Case  in  Point. 

WHILE  the  K.  K.  K.  influence  was  bad  enough, 
in  all  conscience,  and  the  K.  K.  K.  embodi- 
ment a  trifle  worse,  it  had  imitators  in  both  these 
elements  of  its  being  who  cherished  even  Satanic 
designs,  and  we  doubt  if  so  much  could  be  written 
of  the  former.  That  the  Klan  was  organized  on 
South  Carolina  soil,  and  did  much  mischief  to  the 
Conservative  party  and  influence  there  by  assuming 
to  be  its  exponent  on  the  most  untoward  occasions, 
and  at  the  moment  when  its  services  were  least  de- 
sired, is  something  which  is  admitted  in  the  former 
case,  and  its  stupidity  heartily  cursed  with  in  the 
latter.  But  it  is  equally  true  that  many  of  the  atro- 


THE  "SHAMS."  155 

clous  performances  of  men  in  masks  which  invariably 
fell  to  the  K.  K.  K.  score  were  bastardies,  and  unless, 
for  the  sake  of  imaginative  persons,  it  is  admitted 
that  Satan  was  involved  in  the  fatherhood  of  both,  it 
may  be  doubted  if  even  the  claim  of  illegitimate  kin- 
ship could  be  sustained. 

The  "sham,"  or  counterfeit  edition  of  the  K.  K.  K., 
had  no  organized  existence  in  either  of  the  remain- 
ing Southern  States ;  but  here  it  not  only  possessed 
this  groundwork  of  system,  but  possessed  it  to  ad- 
vantage, and  in  numbers  and  influence  (if  political 
rank  can  bestow  the  latter)  probably  excelled  the 
body  which  they  affected  to  parody,  and,  giving  the 
joke  a  serious  turn,  did  injure.  Their  plan  embod- 
ied as  many  of  the  K.  K.  K.  secrets  as  they  could 
contrive  to  capture,  and  scorning  illiberality  even  in 
outward  things,  prescribed  the  regalia  and  mask  fea- 
ture, with  an  expansiveness  of  detail  that  must  have 
affected  the  cotton-market.  Its  chief  place  of  ren- 
dezvous was  the  capital  of  the  State,  and  it  is  be- 
lieved by  many  that  His  Excellency,  the  Governor, 
was,  if  not  its  visible  head,  at  least  its  trusted  advi- 
ser and  friend.  Their  object  was  the  aggrandize- 
ment of  party ;  and  this  they  proposed  to  accom- 
plish by  rendering  the  State  a  revolutionary  hell, 
tenantable  only  for  soldiers,  black  militia,  and  that 
currish  type  of  the  politician  then  in  vogue,  and  who 
had  been  found,  by  actual  experience,  best  adapted 
to  these  elements.  If  a  county,  State,  or  general 
election  were  to  be  held,  these  men,  getting  them- 


156  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

selves  up  in  approved  Ku-Klux  toilet,  went  forth  to 
lay  their  knives  at  the  throats  of  a  sufficient  num- 
ber of  innocents  to  afford  a  text  for  bloody-shirt 
invectives,  and  straightway  the  political  sky  rained 
soldiers  enough  to  garrison  the  polls  of  a  small  em- 
pire. Murder,  arson,  rape,  robbery,  etc.,  all  had  a 
place  in  their  vocabulary,  not  indeed  as  we  would 
speak  of  them  in  the  abstract,  but  with  all  those 
horrible  belongings  of  sentimentality  which  attach 
to  each  when  enterprised  wilfully,  cheerfully,  and 
with  scarcely  a  selfish  end  in  view.  Warring  against 
women  and  children  was  a  foible  of  the  society, 
which  they  carried  to  such  a  state  of  development 
that  it  became  first  an  attribute,  and  then  a  furious 
passion;  insomuch  that,  if  a  faithful  history  of  their 
exploits  were  written,  the  noble  patriots  of  Maine 
and  Massachusetts  would  execrate  them,  as  they  do 
not,  could  not,  those  secret  enemies  who  war  against 
social  virtue  in  their  midst,  and  the  book  could  have 
no  other  title  than  "  Murderers  of  the  Innocents." 

But,  in  exposing  the  wrongs  of  this  people,  we  do 
not  become  their  champion,  nor  even  so  much  as 
pretend  to  assume  that  they  possessed  rights.  If 
fanaticism,  or,  to  use  a  stronger  term,  transcenden- 
talism, morally  speaking,  or  radicalism  in  politics, 
exists  in  the  South  (and  we  leave  this  problem  to 
the  Science  Monthly),  it  has  its  fullest  development  on 
South  Carolina  soil.  Her  people  have  always  shown 
themselves  jealous  of  individual  rights,  and  disposed 
to  clannishness,  where  concessions  affecting  these 


THE  "SHAMS."  157 

have  been  made.  They  have  attempted  to  secede 
from  the  Union  on  two  occasions,  and  the  latter  of 
these  became  the  political  herald  of  the  great  civil 
war,  whose  incidents  are  remembered  with  tears  by 
every  patriot.  The  K.  K.  K.  found  her  climate  con- 
genial, and  from  the  first  her  people  were  mad  against 
reconstruction  ;  and  while  the  writer  may  express  no 
opinion  on  the  subject,  these  things  are  spoken  of 
to  her  disadvantage.  But  admitting  that  they  were 
true,  and  that  she  occupies  that  revolutionary  ex- 
treme in  politics  assigned  her  by  the  most  reliable 
histories  of  the  period,  could  that  justify  the  course 
of  her  domestic  enemies  towards  her,  and  should  it 
chain  the  expression  of  the  undissembling  chronicler 
of  such  events  ? 

We  need  hardly  state  that  this  emetic  proved  too 
much  for  the  K.  K.  K.  animal,  and  that  all  its  move- 
ments thereafter  indicated  not  only  a  badly  dis- 
ordered stomach,  but  moral  functions  so  much  im- 
paired that  it  was  constantly  ruled  by  a  tendency 
to  ask  everybody  pardon  for*  sustaining  this  rela- 
tion to  society,  and  to  accuse  itself  of  crimes  for 
which  it  could  only  assign  somnambulistic  causes. 
Indeed,  about  the  year  1871,  it  was  completely 
parodied  out  of  the  field,  and  if  Ku-Klux  horrors 
were  far  more  frequent  in  this  State  after  that  period 
than  previously,  the  reader,  with  the  lights  before 
him,  is  asked  to  assume  the  responsibility  of  the 
seeming  paradox.  It  not  only  had  no  government 
patronage  at  its  back,  but,  on  the  other  hand,  viewed 
14 


158  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

a  brilliant  perspective  of  government  halters,  and 
seeing  how  unequal  the  rivalry  must  prove  in  more 
respects  than  one,  wisely  concluded  to  retire  from 
business.  A  resolution  of  sine  die  adjournment  was 
actually  passed,  and  the  members  having  exchanged 
sad  farewells  and  wept  on  each  other's  necks  in 
view  of  the  gloomy  prospect  before  them,  the 
"  Shams,"  as  they  were  derisively  called,  became 
masters  of  the  situation.  (If  we  except  the  Ham- 
burg affair  in  the  summer  of  1876,  and  one  other 
occurrence  of  merely  local  import,  the  white  element 
of  South  Carolina  has  been  guilty  of  no  overt  act 
since  the  period  named  implying  contumacy  towards 
the  State  government  or  the  constitutional  rights  of 
the  citizen.) 

The  "  Shams  "  were  opposed  in  their  movements 
not  only  by  the  party  who  had  formerly  upheld  the 
K.  K.  K.  idea  as  an  alleged  necessity  of  the  times, 
but  by  that  more  conservative  influence  which, 
though  maintaining  the  same  political  views  as  the 
latter,  contemned  the  use  of  all  secret  agencies  in 
politics.  When  it  was  possible  to  anticipate  their 
raids,  rotten-egg  battalions  were  formed,  which,  in 
their  efforts  to  deter  them  from  their  purpose,  em- 
ployed every  character  of  violence  that  did  not 
involve  the  commission  of  crime.  Not  unfrequently 
their  places  of  meeting  were  discovered,  and  when 
this  was  the  case,  a  descent  was  planned,  and  the 
subject  of  "  unfinished  business "  rendered  one  of 
lively  interest  to  its  membership.  But,  frequently, 


THE  "SHAMS.  159 

organized  resistance,  from  the  very  nature  of  the 
case,  was  out  of  the  question,  and  where  citizens 
were  placed  at  the  mercy  of  their  raids,  they  some- 
times took  the  execution  of  the  law  into  their  own 
hands.  An  instance  in  point,  which  has  been  given 
to  the  public  in  different  forms,  but  never  correctly, 
has  been  related  to  the  writer. 

In  the  western  portion  of  the  State  lived  a  farmer 
who  had  so  frequently  suffered  from  the  incursions  of 
these  gentry,  that  he  resolved  on  retaliatory  meas- 
ures, and  loading  his  shot-gun  lay  in  waiting.  The 
corn-crib  seemed  to  have  been  a  favorite  objective 
with  them,  and  as  he  had  stationed  himself  where 
his  gun  commanded  the  approaches  thereto,  he 
quietly  bided  the  moments.  His  calculations  were 
well  taken,  for  in  a  brief  time  a  party  of  five  men, 
gowned  and  otherwise  disguised,  rode  to  the  neigh- 
borhood of  his  concealment,  and  taking  sacks 
from  their  saddles  proceeded  to  the  crib.  Here 
their  movements  were  guided  by  a  plan  that  was 
unique  if  not  original.  Obtaining  a  rail  from  a  neigh- 
boring fence,  one  end  thereof  was  inserted  under 
the  corner  of  the  building,  and  their  combined 
strength  applied  to  the  other;  a  leverage  which 
easily  gave  a  sufficient  aperture  to  admit  their 
bodies.  One  of  their  number  was  now  stationed 
on  the  end  of  the  improvised  lever  as  a  teetering 
weight,  and  the  party  proceeded  to  business. 

While  matters  were  progressing  thus  favorably 
for  the  marauders,  our  hero's  feelings  may  be  better 


l6o  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

imagined  than  described,  and  observing  with  what 
a  saucy  air  the  individual  who  balanced  the  fulcrum 
performed  his  other  duty  of  sentinelcy,  he  took 
steady  aim  and  fired. 

The  result,  as  ascertained  some  hours  afterwards, 
was  truly  wonderful,  and  deserves,  if  it  has  not  re- 
ceived, a  place  in  the  archives  of  the  Moses'  admin- 
istration. The  bodies  of  four  dead  negroes  were 
found,  one  pierced  with  bullets,  and  the  remainder 
having  their  necks  broken.  We  will  not  offend 
against  good  taste  by  giving  further  details,  and 
especially  desire  that  the  plausibility  of  this  story 
may  be  seen  in  the  readiness  with  which  the  reader 
comprehends  the  mystery  of  their  deaths  respec- 
tively. 

It  is  needless  to  state  that  this  affair  was  heralded 
to  the  world  as  a  Ku-Klux  murder,  and  as  the 
parties  wore  uniforms,  and  affected  the  characteriza- 
tion, some  doubt  touching  the  integrity  of  the 
announcement  may  have  existed  in  the  minds  of 
those  best  acquainted  with  the  facts. 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

A    MORAL   POINTED. 

A  Problem  for  the  Phrenologists  —  "  Self- Preservation  is  [said  to  be] 
the  First  Law  of  Life"  —  A  Mooted  Question  put  at  Rest  —  Ex- 
periments in  Metaphysics — An  Anecdote  Dealing  with  the  Char- 
acteristics of  some  People  —  Another — Peculiarities  of  the  Cau- 
casian—  Ditto  of  the  African  —  An  "Awakening"  among  the 
Children  of  the  New  Abrahamic  Covenant  — "  Brudder  Jones's 
Preechin' "  —  What  it  Wrought — Unpleasant  Truths — Sins  of 
Omission  and  Commission — The  Pale-Faced  Settlers  in  Distress  — 
An  "Artifice"  of  Retrenchment — Eloquent  Discourse  —  Nine- 
teenthly,  and  what  followed — K.  K.  K.  redivivus — "  Tramp,Tramp, 
Tramp,  the  Boys  are  Marching,  etc." — A  Break  for  Tall  Timber — 
The  Best  Time  on  Record. 

"VT  WHETHER  it  is  located  in  the  brain,  or  has 
»  V  its  seat  in  that  sentient  organ  of  the  body 
which  physiologists  indicate  as  the  seat  of  life,  we 
are  left  to  conjecture ;  but  it  is  certain  that  there  ex- 
ists somewhere  in  the  anatomy  of  man  an  essence, 
or  attribute,  which,  under  certain  outward  condi- 
tions, becomes  the  tyrant  of  his  movements,  and 
renders  the  disposition  to  cultivate  acquaintance 
with  other  vistas  a  passion  too  strong  to  be  resisted. 
Philosophers  tell  us  that  "  self-preservation  is  the 
first  law  of  life,"  but  their  efforts  to  connect  this 
postulate  with  some  rational  conclusion  deduced 
14*  L  161 


l62  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

from  the  organism  of  the  animal  under  discussion, 
is  so  egregiously  wanting  in  the  elements  of  a 
sound  syllogism,  that  we  are  led  to  believe  that  it 
has  no  foundation  in  fact,  and  that  they  only  meant 
to  say  that  where  the  emotion  denominated  fear 
assumes  the  reigns  of  physical  government,  an  open 
road  and  fair  play  are  all  that  is  required  to  render 
the  proposed  achievement  a  success.  It  is  useless 
to  tell  us  that  men,  adopting  the  improved  modes  of 
destroying  life  which  this  Christian  age  has  devel- 
oped, stand  up  to  explode  missiles  at  each  other 
under  the  persuasion  that  they  are  doing  something 
that  will  tend  to  preserve  life ;  or,  if  that  were  not 
false  doctrine,  who  that  ever  attended  one  of  these 
tournaments  of  bad  shooting  is  unable  to  testify  to 
the  overpowering  conviction  that  the  parties  thereto 
would  have  enjoyed  themselves  better  in  a  free  exer- 
cise of  their  limbs  — 

"  Over  the  meadows  and  far  away." 

Having  examined  into  the  philosophy  of  this 
question,  with  a  view  solely  of  removing  certain 
doubts  inherited  from  the  professions  of  a  warlike 
ancestry,  and,  predisposed  to  err  in  the  opposite 
direction,  we  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion,  once  for 
all,  that  the  "  git  up  and  git "  tendencies  of  mankind, 
when  the  proper  incentives  are  at  hand,  are  as  abso- 
lutely irresistible  as  the  water-fall  at  Niagara,  and  as 
necessary  to  the  happiness  of  the  subject  as  the 
barriers  that  separate  him  from  his  mother-in-law. 


A     MORAL    POINTED.  163 

Having  solved  this  problem,  and  satisfied  ourselves 
of  the  universality  of  its  conditions,  it  next  occurred 
to  us  to  examine  its  terms  as  applicable  .to  the  dif- 
ferent races  of  men.  And  here  we  found  that  while 
all  races  are  equally  gifted  in  this  respect,  yet  its 
elementary  conditions  are  not  always  the  same  in 
different  branches  of  the  Adamic  tree.  Taking  the 
extremes  in  color  as  the  representatives  of  a  fair 
contrast  in  other  respects,  we  have  confined  our  in- 
vestigations to  the  white  and  black  races,  —  and  with 
a  view  to  our  own  profit,  and  to  being  fully  com- 
prehended by  the  reader,  —  these  races  as  they  exist 
on  our  own  shores.  Without  any  reference  what- 
ever to  the  vain  science  known  as  metaphysics,  our 
conclusions  are  as  follows  :  With  the  white  man  this 
element  of  his  being  is  less  on  the  surface,  and  he 
wears  it  uneasily,  as  though  it  were  foreign  to  his 
genius,  and  at  the  same  time  a  curb  on  his  actions. 
With  the  other  it  is  a  loose-fitting  garment,  worn  on 
the  outside,  and  he  seems  rather  pleased  than  other- 
wise that  he  is  thus  rendered  a  spectacle  to  his  fel- 
low-men. The  white  man  attempts  to  conceal  it,  and 
above  all  would  persuade  himself  that  it  is  an  illu- 
sion of  the  fancy.  The  black,  contrariwise,  has  no 
qualms  of  conscience  on  the  subject,  and  if  pressed 
for  argument,  might  adduce  it  as  a  crowning  evi- 
dence of  his  homogeneity. 

Two  incidents  have  come  under  our  notice  which 
set  forth  this  distinction  more  forcibly  than  any  form 
of  words  we  could  employ.  A  farmer  living  in  the 


164  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

back  country,  near  the  city  of  Shreveport,  brought 
his  son  —  a  youth  whose  adolescency  would  hardly 
have  escaped  the  notice  of  strangers  -*-  to  that  thriv- 
ing burg  to  view  the  sights.  The  steamboat  feature 
was  down  in  the  programme,  of  course,  and  reaching 
the  wharf,  the  youngster  was  commissioned  to  go 
aboard  and  obtain  the  exact  "geography"  of  "the 
thing."  This  he  proceeded  to  do  with  all  haste, 
exploring  the  quarter-deck,  rummaging  through  the 
cabins,  and  finally  bringing  up  before  the  engine 
with  a  manner  that  said  as  plainly  as  words,  "  the 
thing  is  inconceivable."  The  engineer,  standing  not 
far  off,  observed  this  movement,  and,  probably  with- 
out contemplating  such  serious  results,  stepped 
briskly  forward  and  touched  the  safety-valve.  Star- 
tled beyond  all  "  fancy  fathoms  "  by  the  earthquake 
of  sound,  "country"  accomplished  a  rapid  retrograde 
movement,  which  soon  involved  him  in  conflict  with 
the  waves,  whence,  floundering  and  spluttering,  after 
the  fashion  of  a  porpoise,  and  having  absorbed  a 
barrel  or  more  of  river  water,  he  was  with  difficulty 
rescued.  Being  dragged  ashore,  and  before  the 
agonies  of  drowning  had  fairly  relinquished  his 
frame,  a  sympathizing  bystander  asked  if  he  had 
been  much  scared.  His  reply  was  characteristic  of 
the  Caucasian  blood,  "  No-o-o  (splutter)  ;  I  Ve  (splut- 
ter) seen  the  critters  afore." 

Not  many  hundred  miles  north  of  the  city  of  Gal- 
veston,  while  the  Texas  Central  Railroad  was  in 
course  of  construction,  and  at  a  little  town  which 


A     MORAL    POINTED.  165 

formed  its  northern  terminus  for  the  time  being,  oc- 
curred the  following: 

Two  individuals  of  African  lineage,  hailing  from 
the  upper  districts  of  the  State,  who  had  never  seen 
an  "ingine,"  but  had  long  promised  themselves  that 
felicity,  stood  at  the  depot  awaiting  with  some  im- 
patience the  arrival  of  the  evening  train.  Standing 
.hand  in  hand,  and  conversing  excitedly  on  the  topic 
uppermost  in  their  minds,  their  outre  appearance, 
coupled  with  the  exceeding  verdancy  of  some  of 
their  observations,  became  the  subject  of  attention, 
and  then  of  amused  remark  from  the  bystanders. 
This  they  were  unable  to  appreciate  for  various  rea- 
sons, and  soon  the  appearance  of  the  winded  mon- 
ster around  a  neighboring  curve,  with  appalling  and 
most  unpreconceived  suddenness,  took  away  their 
breaths  and  rocked  their  bodies  with  shivers  of  dread. 
Their  first  impulse  was  to  dismiss  their  corner  of  the 
meeting  and  .pass  to  the  rear;  but,  looking  around 
upon  the  broadly  smiling  crowd,  they  were  reassured 
for  the  moment,  and  each  grasping  the  other's  horny 
palm  with  a  grip  which  evinced  their  respective  de- 
terminations not  to  be  left,  whatever  might  happen, 
they  stood  hearkening  to  the  thunderous  ec  iocs,  and 
noting  with  special  wonder  the  cow-catching  and 
other  aggressive  features  of  the  steadily  approaching 
monster.  It  had  now  stolen  by  slow  degrees  to  with- 
in twenty  feet  of  the  spot  which  they  occupied,  and 
the  whistle  breaking  into  a  peculiarly  loud  accom- 
paniment to  the  huff — huff — huff  of  the  bellowing 


l66  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

engine,  the  expression,  "Dar,  she 's  busted !"  startled 
even  the  man  of  iron  at  the  throttle-valve,  and  pre- 
facing the  exertion  with  a  ten-feet  leap  into  the  air, 
the  panic-stricken  darkies  broke  across  the  land- 
scape with  a  yearning  desire  for  tall  timber  that  was 
eloquently  depicted  on  every  motion  of  the  supple 
limbs,  and  in  each  sway  of  the  backward  leant  and 
pendulous  cerebellums.  The  cheers  of  the  crowd, 
and  a  few  extra  flourishes  on  the  big  horn,  served  to 
augment  their  weight  of  conviction,  and  buckling  to 
their  labor  with  saw-mill  regularity  of  stroke,  and  a 
settled  determination  not  to  be  overtaken  by  slower 
time,  they  soon  blended  with  the  verge  of  the  hori- 
zon, and  took  that  leap  into  space  which  rescues 
them  from  all  further  connection  with  this  narrative. 

So  thin  is  the  partition  wall  that  separates  the 
real  from  the  ideal  with  these  beings,  that  they  con- 
tinually advertise  themselves  for  a  scare,  and  should 
they  by  any  accident  be  deprived  of*  their  weekly 
supply  of  the  element,  loss  of  appetite  and  other 
serious  bodily  symptoms  would  undoubtedly  ensue. 

We  have  volunteered  these  remarks  and  illustra- 
tions, pertaining  to  the  philosophy  of  this  question, 
with  a  view  of  introducing  the  following  occurrence : 

In  that  portion  of  the  State  of  Mississippi  where 
the  pumpkins  grow  largest,  and  the  mosquitoes  are 
supplied  with  blood-letting  apparatus  at  both  extrem- 
ities, and  at  about  that  period  of  post  bdlum  history 
when  the  K.  K.  K.  rabies  had  taken  strongest  hold 
upon  the  chivalry  of  the  neighboring  hills  and  val- 


A    MORAL    POINTED.  l6/ 

leys,  a  great  "awakening"  occurred  among  the  chil- 
dren of  the  new  Abrahamic  covenant.  In  other 
words,  and  to  quote  the  language  of  one  of  the  com- 
municants, " a  ole  fashyun'd  whoopin',  bumpin',  jump- 
in,'  tumblin,'  rousation  of  de  dry  bones  had  super- 
seemed  froo  de  inscroomentality  of  Brudder  Jones's 
preechin'."  For  a  period  of  si  &  weeks  the  lame,  halt, 
and  blind  of  the  neighboring  plantations  had  been 
led  into  the  troubled  waters  with  manifestations  of 
relief  that  the  most  skeptical  would  hardly  question, 
and  still,  to  quote  further,  "  Zion  was  a  wavin',  and  de 
onregenerate  milyums  flockin'  abode  of  de  'gospil 
car.'"  Indeed,  the  "orfumdoxeky  of  de  new  doc- 
torin' "  was  having  its  effect  everywhere,  and  old  soggy 
timber  that  had  resisted  the  improvements  in  wedges 
for  half  a  century  went  to  atoms  under  the  vigorous 
mauling  of  "Brudder  Jones."  No  sooner  had  one 
squad  of  penitents  been  "bumped"  through  and  con- 
verted into  stools  for  the  sisters,  than  the  raw  ma- 
terial for  another  and  larger  was  at  hand,  and  "  swing- 
in',  whoopin',  rollin',"  the  "  thing  "  held  right  on  its 
course  over  the  rheumatic  toes  of  the  aged  and  in- 
firm, and  into  the  combative  "  buzzums  "  of  the  young, 
vigorous,  and  "kick-him-hard-and-let-him-go." 

But  though  nothing  could  be  more  delightful  to 
the  writer  than  to  continue  the  narrative  in  this 
strain,  recording  only  the  triumphs  of  "  suvverin 
grace,"  and  concerning  himself  most  with  the 
aesthetic  beauties  of  its  "  sperimental  terms,"  yet 
duty  compels  him  to  state  that  while  Brother  Jones 


168  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

and  his  militant  hosts  were  pressing  hard  upon  the 
enemy  from  their  entrenched  position,  their  cam- 
paign was  far  from  embodying  all  the  gospel  condi- 
tions. Though  we  could  wish  the  sentence  blotted 
out  after  we  had  written  it,  it  behooves  us  to  say,  in 
plain  words,  that  sins  both  of  omission  and  com- 
mission soiled  their  robes,  and  wrought,  or  should 
have  done  so,  a  languishing  effect  on  their  hosannas. 
The  grassy  cotton-fields  and  rioting  pumpkin  vines 
testified  to  the  former,  while  the  commission  depart- 
ment of  the  offence,  with  such  a  paraphrase  of  that 
word  as  may  be  effected  by  a  slight  transposition 
of  accent,  was  directed  with  most  fatal  precision  of 
aim  at  the  henneries  and  "  piggeries  "  of  the  neigh- 
boring white  trash.  So  constant  and  regular  were 
their  visits  to  the  haunts  of  the  feathered  domestics, 
that  the  fashion  of  noting  absentees  from  roll-call 
became  obsolete;  and  a  full  chorus  of  grunts  was  so 
foreign  to  the  morning  habits  of  the  pig-pen,  that 
such  an  outburst  in  that  quarter  must  have  affected 
the  nerves  of  the  strongest.  Indeed,  that  division  of 
the  pale-faced  settlers  whose  springtime  felicity  de- 
pended k.rgely  on  this  class  of  commissaries,  had 
arrived  at  such  a  desperate  strait  that,  in  convention 
assembled,  it  was  resolved  to  retrench,  and,  if  we 
must  wri:e  it,  their  "artifice"  of  retrenchment  was 
levelled  a:  Brother  Jones  and  his  "band  of  robbers," 
as  they  were  politely  termed.  The  scheme  "  hit 
upon,"  ai  d  the  success  which  followed  it,  may  be 
gathered  from  the  following  scene  : 


A    MORAL    POINTED.  169 

That  period  of  the  night  equally  removed  from 
the  departed  and  the  coming  day,  had  accomplished 
its  fiftieth  revolution,  and  now  hung  fire  over  the 
eighteenthly  of  the  most  eloquent  discourse  that  was 
ever  flattened  out  over  the  crowns  of  an  equal  pro- 
portion of  unsuspecting  listeners  for  the  same  num- 
ber of  times.  The  cries  of  the  stricken  arose  from 
every  quarter  of  the  vast  audience,  and  hundreds  of 
the  slain  had  submitted  to  that  elongating  process 
by  which  their  contorted  frames  were  made  to  do 
duty  for  the  greatest  number  of  "  squatter  sover- 
eigns." One  brother  arose  to  testify,  in  a  series  of 
whoops,  to  the  pungency  of  "  de  brudder's  doctorin'," 
and  immediately  went  to  bed  to  a  mass  of  excru- 
ciating hurts  on  the  outskirts  of  the  assembly.  A 
sister,  racked  by  the  "  alloverishes,"  and  knowing 
the  penalty  for  interrupting  the  services  at  this 
interesting  stage,  screamed  out  in  affright,  and 
reaching  that  point  over  a  causeway  of  the  best 
Boston  built  brogans,  was  content  to  embrace  her 
toes  around  a  neighboring  sycamore.  Nineteenthly 
stood  up  for  duty, — arranged  its  cravat, — tip-toed, — 
and  lo !  instead  of  a  chorus  of  grunts,  a  chorus  of  gasps, 
full-chested,  deep  drawn,  and  suffocating.  There  he 
stood,  or  rather  towered,  just  where  the  rays  of  light 
fell  strongest,  garbed  in  funereal  black,  and  full 
twelve  feet  from  crown  to  sole.*  Steadying  him- 

*  An  individual  of  the  gowned  fraternity,  six  feet  six  inches  in 
height,  borne  upon  the  shoulders  of  a  comrade,  who  approximated 
the  latter  condition. 

IS 


I/O  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

self  after  an  awkward,  but  ghostlily  impressive  bow, 
there  issued  from  that  portion  of  his  corporeal 
frame  which  might  be  supposed  to  represent  the 
mean  in  a  mathematical  estimate  of  his  inches,  the 
following  announcement:  "  I  am  a  Ku-Klux ! "  and 
then  from  the  upper  extreme  the  following  confir- 
mation of  this  report :  "  I  have  just  forded  the 
Tallahatchie  River,  and  am  the  advance  guard  of  the 
old  original  whoopers,  surnamed  K.  K.  K. ; "  and  then 
from  mean  and  extreme,  in  dismal  chorus,  "  Tramp, 
tramp,  tramp,  the  boys  are  marching,  etc." 

Nothing  could  be  further  from  our  purpose  than 
to  injure  that  excellent  person,  either  in  the  eyes 
of  his  contemporaries  or  of  that  posterity  which  he 
was  wont  to  invoke  so  confidently  from  the  more 
thrilling  promontories  of  his  discourse ;  but  a  decent 
regard  for  the  "  proprieties  "  of  this  narrative,  com- 
pels us  to  state  that  the  reverend  orator  observing, 
or  fancying  that  he  observed,  something  mandatory, 
and  withal  personal  in  the  terms  of  this  refrain,  at 
once  inaugurated  the  "  tramp "  exercise  over  the 
heads  of  the  assembly,  and  reaching  terra  firma,  one 
mile  from  the  point  of  embarkation,  and  seeing 
nothing  in  the  homogeneity  of  a  mob  particularly 
attractive  to  a  man  of  genius,  proceeded  to  divest 
himself  of  his  surroundings  in  the  best  executed 
"  lonesome  "  since  the  days  of  Ahimaaz,  the  son  of 
Zadok.  This  movement,  moreover,  possessed  a 
striking  appropriateness,  inasmuch  as  it  rendered 
him  practically  the  leader  of  his  flock,  and  perhaps 


A  MORAL  POINTED.  171 

on  no  former  occasion  of  his  extended  ministry  did 
he  ever  discharge  the  duties  of  the  "  relation  "  with 
the  same  yearning  solicitude  for  the  success  of  the 
issue,  even  admitting,  in  extenuation  of  the  past,  that 
the  most  lukewarm  of  his  constituency  did  their 
whole  duty  on  this  memorable  occasion.  As  the 
writer  has  never  been  successful  at  equating  distances 
since  he  was  gobbled  by  the  greyhound  in  connec- 
tion with  his  more  legitimate  prey  in  the  good  old 
days  of  "  academicia,"  he  declines  to  state  just  how 
many  furlongs  the  panic-stricken  multitude  had 
traversed,  when  a  gloaming  of  red  in  the  east  warned 
them  that  they  had  nothing  further  to  fear  from  the 
"  nocturnal  beasts,"  who  had  obtruded  their  heath- 
enish "  doxullumgy  "  on  the  late  exercises,  and  will 
not  commit  himself  as  to  the  sequel,  further  than  to 
say  that  the  results  of  the  "  great  awakening  "  were 
soon  after  visible  in  a  certain  rejoicing  tendency  of 
the  cotton  plant  and  pumpkin  vine  of  that  fertile 
region. 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

K.  K.  K.  AS   A   FACTOR   IN   POLITICS. 

Late  Announcement  of  the  Earl  of  Beaconsfield  before  an  Asseml  ly 
of  Englishmen  —  The  Secret  Societies  of  Europe — Men  of  Influ- 
ence in  the  Southern  States  Disclaim  the  alleged  Good  Offices  of 
the  Klan  in  the  Work  of  Southern  Redemption  —  Its  True  Status 
with  Regard  to  Current  Politics  —  Combining  the  Offices  of  Reg- 
ulator and  Vigilante  with  that  of  Politician  —  An  Absolutist  in  all 
Society  Matters  —  Many  who  advance  the  Idea  that  that  Complete 
Renovation  of  the  Social  System  Effected  through  its  Means  could 
not  have  been  Accomplished  in  the  Use  of  less  Radical  Measures 
—  Inhuman  Butcheries,  etc.,  Figments  of  the  Scalawag  Imagi- 
nation —  Many  of  its  Acts  were  Lawless,  etc.  —  A  Logical  Presen- 
tation of  the  True  Theory — How  it  Injured  the  Common  Cause  — 
Its  Generical  Belongings  —  Few  Friends  Unconnected  with  its  Pa- 
tronage —  Negative  Issue  which  it  Introduced  into  the  Great  Cam- 
paign —  Occupying  a  Voice  in  Southern  Counsels  —  Unprincipled 
Plagiaries  —  Dangerous  Sentimentalism  Awakened  at  the  North  — 
What  the  Imaginative  Prose  of  the  News-Reporter  was  Calculated 
to  Do— How  it  (K.  K.  K.)  Prolonged  the  "  Carpet-Bag  "  Reign  of 
Terror. 

THE  late  announcement  of  the  Earl  of  Beacons- 
field  (Mr.  D'Israeli),  before  an  assembly  of  Eng- 
lishmen, that  the  pending  war  against  Turkey  was 
the  war  of  the  secret  societies  of  Europe,  conducted 
through  Prince  Milan,  as  their  agent,  may  induce 
incredulous  persons  to  give  greater  heed  to  the 
statement  which  we  here  make :  that  the  movement 

172 


K.  K.  K.  AS    A    FACTOR    IN    POLITICS.        173 

inaugurated  by  the  secret  order  known  as  the  Ku- 
Klux-Klan  was  a  war  against  radicalism  as  it  for- 
merly existed  in  the  Southern  States,  waged  through 
its  ...  allies.  If  the  English  premier  speaks  truth, 
there  is  a  strong  probability  that  the  secret  purvey- 
ors to  whom  he  refers  will  achieve  their  aim,  and 
be  crowned  with  the  same  reflected  glory  that  has 
availed  to  cover  a  multitude  of  sins  in  the  instance 
of  the  American  order,  though  reflecting  people, 
who  take  into  account  the  incentives  to  such  meas- 
ures, can  but  regard  them  as  intermeddlers  of  a  very 
base  stamp.  The  cause  of  religious  liberty  on  the 
Turkish  frontier  will  not  be  benefited  by  this  rev- 
elation ;  and,  continuing  the  analogy,  there  are  few 
men  of  influence  in  the  Southern  States  who  do  not 
make  it  a  point,  whenever  occasion  offers,  to  dis- 
claim the  alleged  good  offices  of  the  Klan  in  the 
work  of  Southern  redemption. 

We  have  before  intimated  that,  in  one  of  these 
States,  the  cause  of  the  allied  Democrats  and  Re- 
publicans did  receive  essential  aid  from  this  source, 
and  while  we  shall  not  enter  into  any  such  exegesis 
of  the  question  as  would  show  just  how  far  the 
common  cause  was  aided  or  retarded  by  the  secret 
measure,  we  must  be  permitted  to  record  a  belief 
that  its  influence  was  commonly  hurtful. 

Every  secret  society,  enterprised  with  a  political 

end  in  view,  must,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  prove 

unpopular  with  the  masses  of  those  who  wield  the 

franchise,  and  in   not  unfrequent   instances,  as  we 

15* 


KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

have  anticipated,  be  deprehended  by  the  very  indi- 
viduals, or  parties  of  individuals,  whom  they  seek  to 
succor.  In  the  instance  of  the  Klan,  these  condi- 
tions were  felt  with  peculiar  weight;  inasmuch  as 
the  people  among  whom  it  was  domiciled  cherished, 
beside  this  common  feeling,  a  natural  aversion  to 
such  influences  in  politics,  derived  from  their  ante 
helium  experience ;  and  the  people  of  the  North, 
unacquainted  with  its  aims,  and  grossly  unenlight- 
ened as  to  its  materiel  and  claims  to  social  rank, 
wrote  it  down  a  very  monster  of  sedition.  It  was 
denounced  in  public,  scoffed  at  in  private,  declared 
to  be  an  outlaw  by  the  legislatures,  interpreted  as 
the  very  essence  of  crookedness  in  morals  by  the 
courts,  fulminated  against  by  the  national  and  State 
executives,  and  how,  under  these  severe  conditions, 
it  contrived  to  even  exist,  is,  and  must  remain,  one 
of  the  unsolved  problems  of  the  "  gilded  age." 

But,  aside  from  any  inherited  odium  of  the  quality 
which  we  have  been  discussing,  the  Klan  had  ob- 
liquities of  its  own,  and  a  record  compiled  therefrom 
which  could  not  fail  to  photograph  it  to  the  world  in 
a  very  disagreeable  light,  and  obtain  for  it  enemies 
(and  sometimes  potential  enemies),  where  it  would 
not  otherwise  have  possessed  them.  Even  its  inter- 
ference in  politics  was  of  an  illegitimate  and  unnat- 
ural kind,  and  called  forth  the  constant  criticisms  of 
such  unprejudiced  judges  as  those  who  were  to  reap 
the  benefits  of  their  enterprises  would  likely  prove. 

But  it  did  not  stop  here,  and  combined  the  offices 


K.  K.  K.  AS    A     FACTOR     IN    POLITICS.        1/5 

of  regulator  and  vigilante  with  that  of  politician.  It 
was  an  absolutist  in  all  society  matters,  and  those 
who  offended  in  this  regard  could  rarely  base  a  hope 
of  immunity  from  visitation  upon  any  well-defined 
precedents  to  be  found  among  its  Domus  Dei  rec- 
ords. [We  have  seen,  in  the  various  sketches  of 
incidents  connected  with  the  Order,  and  based  on  its 
history,  which  have  been  given  in  the  progress  of 
this  work,  the  idea  of  its  officiousness  in  such  de- 
tails rendered  prominent,  and  this  has  been  done,  in 
every  instance,  with  a  view  to  subserve  the  intelli- 
gent aim  upon  which  the  work  is  based :  in  a  word, 
to  render  it  a  true  reflector  of  the  K.  K.  K.  idea,  as 
it  has  existed  in  Southern  society  and  politics.]  But, 
leaving  out  of  the  estimate  the  cruel  measures  some- 
times resorted  to  in  executing  its  plans,  there  will  be 
found  many  who  advance  the  opinion  that  that  com- 
plete renovation  of  the  social  system  accomplished 
through  its  means  was  a  necessity  of  the  times  which 
would  hardly  have  been  effected  so  quickly  and  so 
thoroughly  in  the  use  of  less  radical  measures. 

And  in  this  connection,  it  may  not  be  deemed 
digressive  to  say,  that  the  many  inhuman  butcheries 
with  which  it  was  debited  by  a  not  too  discriminative 
public,  never  in  reality  occurred  (in  no  instance  un- 
less through  accident  or  mistake),  and  were  pure 
figments  of  the  scalawag  imagination — -an  imperent 
element  of  Southern  politics,  whose  acts  had  pro- 
voked the  seign  of  terror  which  it  took  this  dishon- 
est means  of  deprecating. 


176  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

1 

But  as  nothing  could  be*  further  from  our  purpose 
than  to  become  the  champion  of  this  secret  move- 
ment—  which  might  be  inferred  from  a  too  ready 
condemnation  of  its  enemies  —  we  hasten  to  add 
our  conviction  that  many  of  its  acts  were  lawless, 
many  of  its  correctives  applied  to  social  maladies 
improportioned  in  severity,  and  its  entire  adminis- 
tration, social  and  political,  an  incontinent  abuse  of 
usurped  prerogative.  We  have  said  that  in  politics 
its  influence  was  hurtful  to  those  in  whose  behalf  it 
was  officiously  employed,  and  we  wish  to  verify  this 
statement  in  a  logical  manner.  Assuming  that  our 
position  is  fully  understood  by  the  reader,  the  infor- 
mation may  be  volunteered  in  its  support,  that  the 
rank  and  file  of  the  Order  comprised  the  radical 
element  in  Southern  politics  (native),  Democrats 
and  Republicans  (and  not  a  few  of  the  latter),  a 
force,  which  it  was  reasonable  to  presume,  would 
enterprise  radical  measures  only  in  support  of  its 
aims.  The  organization,  then,  standing  alone,  and 
segregated  from  any  influences  which  itself  may 
have  set  in  motion,  could  not  have  failed  of  ungra- 
cious treatment  from  those  domestic  surroundings 
which  it  had  ignored,  but  upon  which  it  was  con- 
fessedly dependent.  The  great  party  from  which  it 
had  seceded,  controlled  by  a  rigid  system  of  morals 
in  politics,  viewed  from  habit  all  such  movements 
with  suspicion ;  and  as  there  was  nothing  in  either 
the  manners  or  the  policy  of  this  departure  calcu- 
lated to  remove  the  antipathies  of  the  prejudiced,  or 


K.  K.  K.  AS    A    FACTOR    IN    POLITICS 

to  win  the  affections  of  the  disengaged,  reflector  of 
opinion,  it  failed  altogether  to  secure  discrimina- 
tions in  its  favor,  which  would  have  placed  it  above 
such  considerations.  From  this  standpoint  (z.  e.,  its 
individuality)  it  conciliated  nobody,  for  even  its  ex- 
ternals were  forbidding ;  and  the  ignorant  and  edu- 
cated classes  alike  —  though  perhaps  from  diverse 
considerations  —  cherished  a  suppressed  sentiment 
unfavorable  to  its  affectation  of  the  supernatural,  and 
its  partiality  for  the  shadowy  in  nature. 

But  while  it  lost  popularity  where  it  should  have 
gained  it, — through  generical  belongings  which,  pos- 
sibly, could  not  have  been  rendered  more  in  har- 
mony with  the  public  fancy,- — there  was  certainly 
nothing  reassuring  to  its  fellow-citizens  in  the  record 
which  it  put  before  the  world.  While,  as  we  have 
said,  there  was  nothing  monstrous,  nor  even  de- 
signedly criminal  in  its  acts,  there  was  so  much  that 
offended  against  propriety,  and  required  explanation 
withal,  that  those  who  had  not  been  estranged  be- 
fore, as  well  as  those  who  had,  became  hopelessly 
so.  It  had  not  been  in  existence  a  twelvemonth, 
before  its  name,  in  the  localities  which  it  frequented 
most,  became  a  by-word  signifying  something  very 
forbidding  and  disagreeable,  if  not  actually  criminal. 
In  the  dozen  States  or  more  whence  its  force  was 
recruited,  it  had  not  half  a  hundred  friends  uncon- 
nected with  its  patronage,  and  these  could  hardly 
have  been  induced  to  have  made  a  public  profession 

of  their  preference. 

M 


178  K.U-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

Its  influence  on  Southern  politics,  then,  could  not 
have  been  favorable ;  and  having  said  so  much  as 
to  the  positive  effect  wrought,  we  shall  briefly  ex- 
amine the  negative  issue  which  it  introduced  into 
the  great  campaign.  And  in  doing  this  we  shall 
not  attempt  to  penetrate  its  motives,  nor  inquire 
how  far  it  was  responsible  for  acts  which  but  re- 
flected an  evil  tendency.  The  reader  has,  doubtless, 
anticipated  us  in  the  statement  that  it  alienated 
the  political  mind  of  the  North,  reopened  the  dead 
issues  of  secession  and  war,  and  licensed  a  political 
persecution  which,  in  extent  and  malignity  of  de- 
sign, has  not  been  equalled  since  the  Roman  empire 
dictated  government  to  its  conquered  dependencies. 
Reconstruction,  having  been  inaugurated  under  favor- 
able auspices,  was  not  to  be  pretermitted,  nor  even 
abated,  while  this  sage  Ahithophel  occupied  a  voice 
in  Southern  counsels  (rendering  a  war  of  races  pos- 
sible) ;  and  who  will  affect  to  say  that  this  policy 
had  no  basis  of  sound  reason  ?  The  society,  a  mys- 
tery to  it:;elf,  and  sorely  misinterpreted  by  the  peo- 
ple among  whom  it  was  domesticated,  became, 
of  course,  a  monster  of  blended  secretiveness  and 
iniquity  to  those  who  had  small  means  of  becoming 
acquainted  with  even  its  aims  through  unprejudiced 
sources.  Added  to  this,  the  most  unprincipled  pla- 
giaries of  its  actual  history  —  perpetrated  by  those 
local  enemies  who  had  most  to  fear  from  the  move- 
ment—  found  their  way  constantly  into  the  news 
mediums  of  the  country,  awakening,  in  the  North 


K.  K.  K.  AS    A    FACTOR    IN    POLITICS.        179 

at  least,  that  dangerous  sentimentalism  which,  more 
than  politics  and  religion  combined,  influences  the 
mind  of  the  nation. 

Atrocities  of  which  the  body  could  not  have  been 
guilty,  even  in  thought — horrors  from  which  it  would 
have  shrunk  with  the  same  symptoms  of  dismay  that 
clouded  the  brow  of  the  Northern  reader  at  their 
bare  relation — were  rescued  from  the  carpet-bagger 
dialect,  and  rendered  into  the  imaginative  prose  of 
the  news-reporter,  with  the  design  of  securing  ene- 
mies, not  for  the  Ku-Klux  movement,  but  the  cause 
of  Conservatism  in  the  South.  Many  of  these  slan- 
ders never  reached  the  individuals  or  communities 
who  would  have  been  authorized  to  refute  them,  and 
when  their  disclaimers  were  uttered  they  were  either 
unheard  or  unheeded. 

We  do  not,  of  course,  affect  to  say  how  long  the 
evils  of  reconstruction  were  prolonged  in  the  South 
by  means  of  this  influence,  but  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  it  excited  such  a  tendency,  and  for  a  long  time 
proved  the  forlorn  hope  of  the  enemies  of  good  gov- 
ernment in  this  section.  Many  of  the  wise  and  good 
men  who  had  joined  the  movement  in  its  inception 
soon  became  aware  of  their  mistake,  and  abandoned 
all  connection  therewith.  Others  followed  at  a  later 
date,  and  about  the  year  1873  a  general  disbandment 
ensued,  leaving  only  guerillas  in  the  field. 


CHAPTER  XIX. 

THE   LAST   OF  THE   K.'s.- 

A  Popular  Fallacy — Karl  Konstant  Kain,  Esq. — A  Fit  Companion  for 
the  Wandering  Jew  —  Awaiting  Events — The  First  Visitation  — 
An  Intricate  Subject  for  the  Hospitals  and  Doctors — Getting  Even 
with  the  Latter — Put  Away  — Yellow  Jack  on  a  Raid  —  K.  K.  K., 
Esq.,  in  his  Prison  Cell — Promoted  to  the  Hospital — An  Uncommon 
Defiance — A  Picturesque  Outside — Waiting  for  the  End — K.  Kon- 
stant Kain  Struggles  back  to  Shore — "  Do  not  Weep" — A  Critical 
Moment — A  New  Cast  and  entire  Change  of  Scenery  —  "Gruel" 
did  it — Waited  upon  by  a  Deputation  of  Citizens — "Young  Man, 
Go  West" — The  New  Orleans  Pest-House— Konfounded,  Kroo*ked 
Konundrum. 

SOME  dealer  in  those  cheap  apothegms  which 
commend  themselves  to  the  public  gullibility, 
through  the  public  tendency  to  moralize  concerning 
subjects  of  which  it  knows  nothing,  has  rendered 
himself  famous,  and  the  great  majority  of  mankind 
asses,  by  the  announcement  that  "  everything  must 
have  an  end."  Without  a  design  of  reopening  a 
dead  controversy,  or  so  much  as  mentioning  the 
word  "  fossil,"  we  must  be  permitted  to  record  a  be- 
lief that  the  author  of  this  sage  prophecy  had  never 
heard  of  the  mathematician's  war  involving  the 
crookedness  of  the  half  circle,  and  was  grossly  un- 
informed on  the  topic  of  the  great  Woman's  Rights 

i  So 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    K/S.  l8l 

movement  and  those  leaders  who  have  concerned 
themselves  about  its  temperature  for  the  past  two 
hundred  years.  And  while  the  cause  of  orthodoxy 
might  be  safely  entrusted  to  two  such  examples  of 

"  The  few  immortal  things 
That  were  not  born  to  die," 

it  is  in  no  sense  of  triumphing  over  a  fallen  adver- 
sary that  we  add  the  conviction  that  the  beaming 
countenance  of  Karl  Konstant  Kain,  the  last  of  the 
K.'s,  had  never  dawned  upon  this  prophet's  sense  of 
the  ridiculous. 

We  shall  introduce  him  to  the  reader  as  he  was, 
and  is,  and  without  any  reference  to  a  future  —  that 
with  him  is  but  a  name,  a  fleeting  shadow.  And 
in  order  that  this  reminiscence  may  be  perfect,  it 
will  be  needful  to  relate  that  he  had  reached,  at  this 
period  of  his  existence,  a  climax  of  loneliness  and 
gaunt  despair  that  would  have  rendered  him  a  fit  com- 
panion for  the  "  Wandering  Jew,"  and  a  most  unfit 
one  for  anything  less  ludicrously  ideal.  Though  it 
had  been  of  his  own  choosing,  a  shadow  pursued  him 
and  would  not  let  him  rest :  it  was  the  ghost  of  the 
murdered  K.  K.  K.  He  had  been  with  it  in  its  pros- 
perity ;  had  eaten  its  bread  in  its  adversity ;  and  since 
above  the  spot  of  its  interment  the  daisies  were  de- 
veloping into  types  of  its  departed  beauty,  he  had 
given  himself  to  the  magnanimous  resolve  of  per- 
petuating its  genius  in  other  climes. 

Having  chalked  a  freight  car,  "  Through  without 
16 


182  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

delay,"  he  deposited  his  remains  on  the  inside,  and 
four  days  thereafter  found  himself  at  the  door  of  a 
cheap  hashery,  in  the  thriving  little  city  of  Colum- 
bus, Texas.  Here  he  refreshed  the  inner  man  on  a 
promise  to  pay,  rendered  subsequent  to  the  meal, 
and  having  been  damned  for  a  "  blister,"  and  a 
"  cooter,"  and  a  "  scorpion,"  wandered  forth,  that 
image  of  "blank  dismay"  which  we  have  already 
depicted  to  the  reader.  Destiny  was  now  begun 
with  him  in  earnest,  and  it  was  only  necessary  for 
him  to  sit  still  and  "  administer  upon  the  fluttering 
pasteboards,"  with  that  resignation  of  soul  which 
should  characterize  the  man  who  has  given  five 
points  in  the  game,  and  occupies  the  losing  seat. 
Mounting  a  goods-box  on  a  neighboring  corner,  he 
adjusted  his  unshapeliness  to  its  angles  in  a  posture 
that  would  have  been  an  easy  one  for  another  man, 
and  awaited  events.  They  were  not  slow  in  coming. 
In  fact  they  came  in  troops,  and  awaited  their  turn 
with  a  constancy  of  resolve  that  would  have  fright- 
ened a  less  Napoleonic  structure.  The  first  visita- 
tion comprised  two  Hibernians  of  smiling  aspect, 
who,  observing  this  unusual  tableau,  affected  to  note 
a  disposition  to  sneeze  in  the  subject.  Instantly  our 
hero  accepted  the  challenge  (ad  hominem  et  sine  ex- 
ceptione),  and  leaping  from  his  perch  engaged  his 
persecutors  with  the  desperation  of  a  man  who  feels 
that  he  would  be  made  happier  if  soundly  whipped. 
Striking  right  and  left,  he  provoked  his  adversaries 
to  do  their  worst,  and  soon  brandishing  huge  knives, 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    K.'s.  183 

they  made  inroads  upon  his  anatomy  which  left  him 
an  intricate  subject  for  the  hospitals  and  doctors. 
Twenty-two  wounds  in  all  had  severally  penetrated 
his  lungs,  severed  his  carotid  artery,  atrophied  his 
liver,  wasp-nested  his  umbilicus,  riddled  his  facial 
parts,  and  bereft  him  of  five  fingers  and  the  arm  to 
which  their  five  fellows  were  attached, —  and  yet  he 
would  not  die,  could  not  see  it  to  his  interest  to  die, 
felt  that  it  would  not  be  destiny  to  die, —  and  four 
weeks  thereafter  exhibited  himself  in  public  to  a 
goodly  number  of  false  prophets,  who,  excusing 
him  and  themselves  on  the  ground  of  a  miracle, 
tendered  him  congratulations. 

But  if  Karl  Konstant  was  some  the  worse  for  wear, 
he  was  none  the  worse  for  something  to  wear,  hav- 
ing levied  on  a  full  cloth  rig  and  watch,  belonging 
to  one  of  the  hospital  doctors,  as  some  remuneration 
for  the  torturing  exercises  in  surgery  which  had 
been  directed  at  his  corporosityi  Walking  the 
streets  with  the  air  of  a  man  whom  melancholy  has 
marked  for  her  own,  and  yet  attracting  the  notice 
of  passers-by  through  a  subdued  emphasis  of  gait 
and  manner,  which  could  hardly  have  proceeded 
from  a  less  philosophic  cause  than  good  clothes,  and 
a  chronometer  that  would  unfailingly  chronicle  the 
hash  hour,  he  was  next  interviewed  by  two  police- 
men with  drawn  clubs,  who,  by  virtue  of  his  late 
condition  of  mayhem,  subjected  him  to  but  one-half 
the  regulation  mauling,  and  having  divested  him  of 
his  borrowed  plumage,  jugged  him,  and  corked  him, 


184  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

and  expressed  through  the  bars  a  wish  to  kiss  him 
for  his  mother-in-law. 

About  this  time  "  Yellow  Jack,"  in  making  his  de- 
cennial tour  of  the  Southern  cities  of  Texas,  debarked 
at  Columbus,  and  for  a  period  of  four  weeks  lent  his 
energies  to  a  most  •  devastating  epidemic.  Thou- 
sands were  stricken,  hundreds  rendered  their  final 
account,  and  the  undertakers,  protesting  that  it  was 
an  ill-wind,  took  orders  for  coffins.  Karl  Konstant 
Kain  beheld  the  public  dismay  through  his  prison 
bars,  and  despaired.  He  knew  that  it  would  come ; 
fate  had  whispered  him  that  it  would  come — and  feel- 
ing this,  his  anxiety  on  the  subject  soon  developed 
into  a  wish  that  it  might  come.  He  was  not  disap- 
pointed ;  and  when  it  came  and  lodged  a  great  pain  in 
his  side,  and  touched  up  his  pulse  an  half  hundred 
degrees  or  so,  it  did  not  conclude  its  labors,  but 
promoted  him  to  the  hospital  and  doctors,  and  bade 
him  look  about  him  for  means  of  offsetting  the  latter. 

But  we  regret  to  state  that,  notwithstanding  these 
small  but  disinterested  attentions,  K.  K.  K.,  Esq., 
murmured,  and  the  very  day  upon  which  he  was 
transferred  to  hospital  sumptuousness,  confronted 
his  yellow-visaged  enemy  with  a  challenge  to  do  his 
worst.  That  individual  hesitated,  and  objected  that 
the  combat  would  prove  an  unequal  one ;  but  soon 
seeing  that  any  explanation  which  might  be  rendered 
would  be  construed  into  a  possible  desire  to  avoid 
defeat  (and  becoming  the  least  bit  enraged  in  view  of 
such  an  uncommon  defiance),  began  his  dispositions. 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    K/S.  185 

And  now  the  battle  of  the  giants  raged  in  good 
earnest ;  and  as  there  was  a  kind  of  Pindaric  gro- 
tesqueness  about  it  which  could  not  fail  to  attract 
observers,  it  became  first  the  hospital  talk,  and  then 
the  subject  of  no  inconsiderable  amount  of  by- 
betting,  with  the  odds  in  favor  of  "  Yellow  Jack." 
One  week  from  the  period  of  his  inoculation,  the 
victim  had  developed  the  most  picturesque  outside 
that  it  is  possible  for  any  man  to  possess  east  or 
west  of  the  Malayan  dominions,  and  inwardly,  a 
type  of  the  black  vomit  that  would  have  set  an 
undertaker's  teeth  on  edge.  The  doctors,  examining 
their  watches  at  a  safe  distance,  thought  that  he 
could  not  last  twenty-four  hours,  and  the  subject 
of  the  disorder,  transferring  an  abandoned  kerchief 
to  the  rear  of  his  shirt  front,  gave  himself  but  half 
that  time.  But  doctors,  though  controlling  the  other 
features  of  the  business  with  tolerable  accuracy,  are 
not  always  infallible  as  to  "  time  when."  It  was 
three  days  before  a  coffin  was  ordered,  and  pending 
the  half  hour  required  to  produce  a  fair  example  of 
pest-house  carpentry,  Karl  Konstant  struggled  back 
to  shore  with  the  announcement  that  he  had  changed 
his  mind,  and  a  sarcastic  appeal  to  his  medical 
attendants  "  not  to  weep."  The  "  box  "  was  found 
to  square  the  dimensions  of  a  stiff  in  a  neighboring 
ward,  who  had  accomplished  the  stormy  voyage  in 
forty-eight  hours,  and  into  it  he  was  jammed,  and 
committed  to  the  cartman  with  an  injunction  to 

drive  fast. 
16* 


l86  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

K.  K.  K.,  Esq.,  was  now  billed  "  for  five  days, 
only  with  a  new  cast  and  entire  change  of  scenery," 
the  latter  part  of  this  announcement  referring  to  an 
abandoned  hut  on  the  river  shore,  one  mile  below 
the  city.  The  doctors,  despairing  of  the  disease, 
declared  that  the  stench  in  his  body  would  suffocate 
him  in  twenty-four  hours  (extending  the  time  as 
above,  to  avoid  accidents),  and  dismissed  him  to  an 
aged  negress,  with  instructions  to  draw  on  the  city 
for  boneyard  supplies.  Situated  in  this  quiet  re- 
treat, our  hero  could  lie  "  heels  uppermost,"  and 
number  his  waning  breaths,  or  hearken  to  the  death- 
rattle  in  his  throat,  without  aught  to  molest  or  make 
him  afraid,  and  controlled  by  that  -sweet  impertur- 
bability of  temper  so  necessary  to  perfect  rest  amid 
such  scenes.  He  had  enjoyed  his  new  lease  of 
happiness  two  full  days  before  it  was  thought  neces- 
sary to  apply  to  his  city  correspondents,  and  as 
there  was  some  delay  in  forwarding  the  stipulated 
articles,  it  is  needless  to  say  that  when  they  arrived 
the  subject  had  "  limbered  up,"  and  the  cartman 
found  it  necessary  to  imitate  his  example,  and  drive 
back  a  sadder  man. 

Five  days  came  and  went,  and  still  Karl  Konstant 
Kain  lingered  above  ground,  viewing  the  shadows 
go  up  and  down  on  the  pine  box  destined  for  his 
remains  (a  standing  menace  of  this  character  now 
occupied  one  corner  of  his  apartment),  and  realizing 
that  his  symptoms  grew  hourly  worse.  His  old 
friends,  the  doctors,  feeling  some  anxiety,  came  to 


THE    LAST    OF    THE    K/S.  l8/ 

examine  into  the  matter,  but  after  a  careful  diagnosis 
of  the  patient,  they  left  with  very  marked  abridg- 
ments of  countenance  and  their  pills.  Under  the 
circumstances,  they  felt  that  pills  would  only  hasten 
the  sad  event.  And,  indeed,  their  prognostications 
seemed  not  ill-founded.  Six  hours  later,  a  fearful 
coma  seized  his  struggling  anatomy  and  held  it  fast, 
and  in  a  few  minutes,  at  farthest,  the  last  mournful 
rites  would  be  in  order.  The  pulse  had  become 
quite  motionless,  the  suppressed  breathing  grew 
momentarily  fainter, — and,  aha !  hold  a  light,  nurse. 

What  a  moral  is  pointed  in  that  much  quoted 
sentiment  referring  to  the  "  fate  of  men  and  empires." 
'Twas  but  a  drop  of  water  trickling  from  the  rain- 
drenched  roof,  and  yet  it  had  power  to  call  a  human 
being  to  life. 

K.  K.  Kain,  Esq.,  now  sat  bolt  upright  in  his 
straw-bed  and  demanded  —  shall  we  write  it — would 
it  be  politic  —  in  a  word,  would  it  be  accepted  as 
true?  In  such  an  emergency  there  is  no  alternative 
left  to  the  undissembling  chronicler  of  fact,  nor  do 
we  seek  one.  K.  Konstant  Kain  demanded  gruel, 
and  indeed  from  this  moment  conceived  such  an 
attachment  for  gruel,  that  it  was  with  difficulty  that 
their  separation  could  be  accomplished  for  any  con- 
siderable portion  of  his  waking  moments.  Nor  can 
it  be  denied  that  gruel  aided  his  convalescence  and 
his  complexion  as  nothing  else  but  tolerably  regular 
doses  of  Blooming  Cereus  could  have  done.  (This 
joke  is  paid  for,  and  on  that  ground  it  is  hoped 


188  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

there  will  be  no  objection  to  it.)  In  two  weeks, 
time  gruel  stood  him  on  his  two  legs  and  bade 
him  "view  the  landscape  o'er."  In  three  it  had 
brought  its  magician's  art  to  bear  on  his  sunken 
cheeks,  and  converted  the  yellow  rose  of  Texas 
into  a  lively  peach  bloom.  And  in  the  short  space 
of  one  month  it  had  so  far  rehabilitated  his  battered 
hulk,  that  he  was  enabled  to  receive  a  deputation  of 
citizens  with  a  purse  of  Mexican  coin,  and  a  "gruel" 
request  to  convey  himself  across  that  border.  It  is 
needless  to  say  that  Mr.  Kain  accepted  the  douceur 
and  stood  not  upon  the  order  of  his  going. 

Arrived  in  that  sun-burnt  clime,  one  of  his  first 
acts,  according  to  the  Texas  journalists,  was  to 
involve  himself  in  a  railroad  smash-up,  with  a  loss 
of  his  dexter  leg  and  a  head,  but  as  he  was  shortly 
afterwards  advertised  to  appear  in  a  Greaser  circus 
combination  as  a  tight-rope  performer,  it  is  appre- 
hended that  some  of  the  facts  were  suppressed. 
Terminating  his  engagement  in  debt  to  the  mana- 
gers, he  reached  the  city  of  New  Orleans  by  "  hook 
or  crook,"  or  both,  and  more  of  the  former,  and  a 
good  deal  of  the  latter,  and  was  last  heard  of  as 
one  of  the  inmates  of  the  famous  pest-house  of  that 
city.  How  he  escaped  from  this  institution,  and 
resumed  his  peripatetic  career,  would  doubtless 
make  a  very  pretty  romance,  but  we  must  be  par- 
doned, if  we  assert  that  we  know  no  more  about 
this  konfounded,  krooked  konundrum  than  does  the 
reader,  and  drop  our  quill. 


CHAPTER  XX. 

CONCLUSION. 

The  Author  has  no  Explanations  to  Offer — Such  as  it  is,  it  is  — 
The  Chief  of  Two  Reasons  for  Holding  it  in  Esteem  —  A  Whim 
that  has  been  Gratified — Mischievous  Results  of  Confiding  a  Se- 
cret to  One  Female  Acquaintance  instead  of  Fifty —  Can  anything 
be  more  Ridiculous  than  to  Suppose  that  there  is  a  Word  of  Fic- 
tion Connected  with  the  foregoing  Chapters  ?  —  Lakeside  Pub- 
lishers —  The  Public  Invited  to  Pocket  their  Scruples  and  Read 
History  —  Finale. 

POSITIVELY,  we  must  depart  from  a  time-hon- 
ored custom  of  the  bookmaker,  as  we  confess 
with  blushes  that  we  have  no  confidences  to  exchange 
with  the  reader,  no  explanations  to  offer  to  the  pub- 
lic, and  no  fine  epigrams  to  repeat  concerning  that 
aged  word — farewell.  Such  as  it  is,  it  is,  and  we 
have  no  idea  of  making  it  better,  by  any  such  supra 
legem  performance.  If  the  reader  is  satisfied,  we 
are ;  and  if  he  is  not,  and  will  signify  that  remarkable 
conclusion  to  the  author,  he  shall  have  his  money 
back,  together  with  fair  wages  for  such  portion  of 
his  valuable  time  as  may  have  been  squandered  on 
its  pages.  We  could  not  think  of  taking  such  a  mean 
advantage  of  any  one's  talent  for  promiscuous  read- 
ing, and  beg  to  repeat  this  announcement  as  a  request. 

189 


KU-KLUX    SKETCHES. 

If  anybody's  party-feeling  has  been  ruffled,  it 
may  be  taken  in  some  sense  as  a  natural  conclusion, 
for,  besides  having  none  ourselves,  and  treating  the 
subject  from  all  sides,  we  may  have  had  some  such 
dernier  purpose  in  view.  Political  tastes  are  so  varied 
that  they  can  rarely  be  consulted  with  success  in  a 
literary  venture  of  reasonable  magnitude,  and  where 
this  is  true,  it  can  be  no  more  than  fair  to  ignore 
them. 

The  work  has  many  imperfections,  as  all  can  see — 
imperfections  which  cannot  be  cured,  and  hence 
resemble  it  so  much  to  human  nature  that  we  must 
be  pardoned  for  alleging  that  circumstance  as  the 
chief  of  two  reasons  (both  disconnected  from  those 
philoprogenitive  impulsions  that  we  sometimes  hear 
of  from  mawkish  writers)  for  holding  it  in  esteem. 
The  sun  has  spots,  and  we  once  knew  a  critic  whose 
grammar  was  execrable.  Lest,  however,  some  per- 
sons should  officiously  infer  that  we  mean  to  wrong 
a  very  excellent  class  of  people,  we  will  state  that 
the  analogy  between  the  last-named  objects  does 
not  cease  here. 

What  we  wish  to  say  most  in  this  concluding  chap- 
ter, is  that  the  work  was  not  written  to  invite  anybody's 
pique,  nor  to  avoid  it,  nor  to  flatter  anybody,  nor  to 
parody  anybody,  but  to  gratify  a  whim,  and  as  it  has 
been  announced  that  there  would  be  no  explanation, 
and  the  completion  of  the  task  leaves  us  in  a  mood 
for  conundrums,  we  shall  not  interfere  with  the  read- 
er's prerogative  of  guessing  its  import.  But  it  was  a 


CONCLUSION.  IQI 

mere  whim,  and  now  that  it  has  been  gratified,  we 
feel  better — vastly  improved,  in  fact  —  so  much  im- 
proved that,  in  order  to  reach  a  superlative  that  will 
fit  our  case  precisely,  we  find  it  necessary  to  go  be- 
yond the  dictionary  standard,  and  adopt  the  beauti- 
ful newsboy  euphemism,  hunky-dory.  And  then,  too, 
the  author  has  that  self  gratulation  which  could  not 
fail  to  proceed  from  the  knowledge  that,  from  the 
beginning,  a  brave  effort  was  maintained  to  avoid  that 
notoriety  which  comes  of  even  remote  connection 
with  such  labor  as  he  has  performed,  —  and  which 
must  have  succeeded  but  for  his  inadvertence  in  con- 
fiding the  secret  to  one  female  acquaintance  instead 
of  fifty.  Now  that  the  mischief  has  been  performed, 
his  partiality  for  the  sex  leads  him  to  say  that  he 
will  be  more  thoughtful  in  the  future. 

An  old  friend,  whose  sagacity  regarding  such  sub- 
jects is  approved,  has  informed  us  confidentially  that 
the  book  will  sell,  and  if  it  sells,  can  it  be  anybody's 
business  whether  it  is  read  or  not?  After  revolving 
this  query  in  our  mind,  and  inducing  a  fair  analogy 
between  what  would  be  just  to  the  outside  world 
and  profitable  to  ourselves,  we  are  left  statu  quo  until 
such  time  as  the  neighborhood  debating  society  can 
be  heard  from. 

Can  anything  be  more  ridiculous  than  to  suppose 
that  there  is  a  word  of  fiction  connected  with  the 
foregoing  chapters?  A  half-wit  acquaintance,  who 
plumes  himself  on  the  accident  which  enables  him 
to  write  M.  C.  after  his  name,  has  obtruded  this  dim"- 


Ip2  KU-KLUX    SKETCHES.      . 

culty  upon  the  author,  and  been  handsomely  objur- 
gated for  his  pains.  Did  we  not  do  right?  and  why 
is  it  that  these  men  are  permitted  to  lounge  away 
from  their  places  of  confinement  at  the  most  dan- 
gerous season  of  the  year? 

We  here  make  the  announcement,  boldly  and  with- 
out fear  of  successful  contradiction  (this  form  of  ex- 
pression is  copied  from  J.  Billings,  with  some  amend- 
ments in  spelling),  that  nobody's  facetiousness  is 
chargeable  with  one  syllable  of  these  sketches;  and 
if  they  do  not  suit  the  public  palate,  it  is  altogether 
attributable  to  the  fact  that  that  organ  is  in  a  badly 
disordered  state,  and  requires  stimulants  of  a  nature 
which  the  Lakeside  publishers  will  have  no  difficulty 
in  supplying  at  the  regulation  price  for  compounded 
drinks.  More  than  this  we  do  not  feel  at  liberty  to 
divulge  at  present,  but  we  do  sincerely  trust  that 
those  who  compromise  their  doubts  far  enough  to 
purchase  the  book,  will '  pocket  their  scruples  and 
read  history. 


THE   END. 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hilgard  Avenue,  Los  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

Return  this  material  to  the  library 

from  which  it  was  borrowed. 


\s 

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JAN 


1S94 


J  3  1935 


University  of  C 
Southern  Rej 
Library  Fac 


